Klaud Captors
by Brandon Storm
Summary: What is magic? We have this thing called 'science' to explain it, but does anyone really know what it is? What it really is capable of? Where it actually came from? Where it's going to end up? What we are going to do when we get there? That is what I want to know. So Hi, My name is Klaud Reed.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note** : Okay so here's my next story, I figured with Card Captors getting a sequel soon I'd might as well post a story, and remember people I want to see some reviews this time!

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Chapter one: A Brief Summary of Magical History.

In the year 2020, the world had made a successful full conversion into the use of natural power sources: Wind, Solar and Hydro power had totally replaced nuclear, fossil fuels and natural gas. The world's total food supply increased dramatically causing a sudden population boom to 9 billion. In the year 2030, the planet underwent a dramatic drop in temperature as a result of large scale recession of green house gasses. Dwindling food sources prompted a large scale immigration from China to Russia, as the immigrants entered the country illegally the Russians sent the immigrants back to China as was demanded by international law. Negotiations between China and Russia quickly breaks down and erupts into a third world war in the year 2045. In order to prevent the use of nuclear weapons and subsequently devastating the world, a 'new technology' was created: Magicians. Discovering that magic required a natural genetic predisposition, individuals determined to possess such a predisposition was gathered together by the individual countries and their DNA was spliced together to create what is known as the modern day magician. As for the Magic itself, the magical formula's were learned by studying the variety of supernatural In 2064, nearly twenty years after the onset of the third world war, the war finally ends. Canada absorbs the United States, Mexico and Central America into the United states of North America. The Russians reabsorb Ukrain and Belarus and conquer the divided European Union creating the New Soviet Union. China is divided into the stated of Dahan and China, before absorbing the Korean peninsula and reabsorbing Dahan creating the Great Asian alliance. Australia remains a independent country, while Africa absorbed it's various smaller countries into one country known as Africa. Japan and Indonesia formed a political alliance, the Indo-Japan alliance. In particular, Japan has been extra aggressive in the development of 'human weapons' called magicians. Ten laboratories were founded, each founding one of the ten great magician families and collectively over one hundred sub families of magicians, of them, the Totsuya clan of the fourth laboratory and the Jyuumonji clan of the first laboratory are particularly powerful. By the year 2095, over ten percent of the world's population can be called magicians, having evolved beyond a mere tool of war, Magic is now a part of every day life, and the magician is a indispensable resource. Utilizing Ancient magical casting methods such as magical circles, magical cards and verbal spells were converted into software and placed into portable digital devices called called CAD's or Casting Assistant Devices in order to aid the Magicians in the casting process. In order to instruct and educate the magical populace nine magical schools were founded across the country by the ten great family's. This is the story of the First Academy, considered number one in educational quality among the nine schools.

This is the information that she read from the pamphlet 'A brief history of Modern Magic' as she changed into the academy's uniform. Truthfully, she didn't like it very much. It wasn't that it was ugly per say, the dress was white with some red trimming on the sides, and paired with a green coat, but her slightly tomboyish personality leaned towards the suits of the male students, and they were easier to move around in as well. There was one part that she really didn't like about it: the blank patches on the shoulders. The part that they don't mention in the pamphlet is the lack of teachers at the academy to accommodate it's two hundred students. So instead there is the two course system, where only the top one hundred most promising students, or Blooms, are given proper magical education, and the other hundred, or weeds, are merely given access to terminals through which they may study magic. It didn't bother her situation any, after all her family knows far more about magic then these ignorant people could ever hope to accomplish in the entire history of their country.

"Here goes nothing." The young red headed girl with green eyes stated as she walked through the gates of First Academy.

She saw a woman working a desk that had been placed outside of the academy and was greeting the students as they came through the front gate.

"Name." The woman stated in a dull tone of voice.

"Klaud Reed." The Young read head (our protagonist) replied.

Receiving her identification, Klaud followed the class register to her home room. Along the way she encountered a pair arguing out in front of the school.

"But Big Brother! It's not fair!" The shorter of the pair, a young girl with silky black hair and bright blue eyes with the uniform of the first course students, shouted at the individual who was presumably her brother.

"It is what it is, so it can't be helped." The taller of the pair, a black haired young man with blue eyes replied dully.

"Yo!" The pair turned their attention to Klaud who was waving over to them. "Something wrong?"

"Only this school's stupid ranking system!" The shorter girl shouted flailing her arms about in frustration. "My big brother is the strongest magician in the whole wide world but this stupid school treats him like some worthless person!"

"Big brother?" Klaud looked between the two siblings confusedly for a few moments. "Is he in his second year here?" Klaud asked pointing at the taller of the two.

"No I'm a first year like you. Tatsuya Shiba at your service." The young man stated holding out his hand to shake, which Klaud did.

"Then are you twins?" After all Big had more than one meaning.

"No no, I was born ten month's after big brother. Miyuki Shiba at your service!" Miyuki stated as she gave Klaud curtsy.

"Then are one of you adopted?" Now that Klaud thought about it, the two of them being twins was more than unlikely it almost seemed impossible.

Ignoring their Hair and Eye Color the pair had nothing in common, on the contrary while she could only sum up Tatsuya looking completely ordinary Miyuki some how radiated a aura of beauty. Heck, she wasn't gay, at least she didn't think she was gay, and she was attracted to her.

"We get that a lot too. But we were both born to and raised by the same parents." Tatsuya stated dully, it wasn't like he had explained it a lot, but more like he simply didn't care.

"Right. Well I wouldn't worry about that. If Tatsuya really is as strong as you say he is then I'm sure that he'll have it proven in no time." Klaud stated waving the matter off with her hand while smiling cheekily.

"No I'm not." Now Klaud was starting to get confused. "For one thing I have a extremely small calculation area, and a extremely slow spell casting rate. If I got into a duel my opponent would probably finish me off before I could get a single spell fired off."

"But Big Brother!" Tatsuya shot his sister a single glare, silencing her into submission. They were hiding something.

"Well, I suppose who is right and who is wrong will be proven in due time." Klaud stated shrugging her shoulders. After all, she too had her secrets to hide. "The Name's Klaud Reed by the way."

Tatsuya and Klaud made their way to the homeroom together with a group of other second course students. Klaud caught sight of their teacher at the front of the class. the desks were more accurately computer terminals, the screen a touch pad but with a independent key board. Being the first day, class time was rather light, it was more along the lines of their orientation segment. After class was done Klaud went her own way up to the roof, wanting to soak up some sunlight before she was picked up.

"Hmm. So this is a magical academy eh?" It wasn't perfect, but at least she was away from her sisters. The mere thought of what those three would be doing to her right now was terrifying.

"I said No!" Spoke too soon. Klaud looked down and saw Miyuki being harassed by a group of course one students.

"Easy there! We just want to talk! It's not good for a Bloom like you to be hanging out with a weed like them."

He was a orange haired student, probably from some well-to-do family that can't be wrong if their lives depended upon it. Having formed a protective gang around Tatsuya and Miyuki, were a group consisting of other Course Two students. That orange haired punk made Klaud sick just thinking about it. As it was though, she was in a position to do something about it. The orange haired student raised his arm in front of him with his CAD bracelet and readied a magical formula.

"So be it, if you insist on using violence, then we have no choice but to defend ourselves." So he intended to start a mess and blame the second course students.

Klaud jumped from the top of the building and landed on top of the orange haired student.

"I'm sorry am I interrupting something?" Klaud's would be opponents wasted no time in trying to attack her.

What they didn't realize was that being crouched down she was in the perfect position to inflict some major damage upon them. For starters, she sprung into a head butt into the mid section of one of the nearest students, secondly grabbed the feet of two others who were in mid kick. Jumping into the air a bit she donkey kicked one who had tried to flank her from behind. Klaud used the kick to flip around in the air and flip over the two who she already had in her grip sending them into two more behind them. One student was winding up with another Magic attack, and would have cast it to no doubt devastating effect, if he wasn't distracted by the view up Klaud's dress as she drop kicked him.

"Note to self, need pants." Only two of the course one students were left. Klaud took one step forward and they fearfully took one back. "That's what I thought!"

"Fufufu!" Turning around Klaud was greeted by the sight of a pair of senior students, tall and slender women with long black hair. One of them projected a dangerous atmosphere, carried with her a wooden sword, and had a dark armband around one of her arms, while one of them looked rather amused the other was far from it.

"It looks like somebody couldn't even wait until the first day was over before they start causing trouble." The one with the sword growled menacingly.

"Mari..." The wounded orange haired student got up to his feet before pointing accusingly towards Klaud. "Arrest her! She came out of no where and attacked me! I couldn't even defend myself!"

"Arrest them both!" The young woman named Mari snapped, prompting a few thugs hiding around the shadows to come out and grab both Klaud and the orange haired student from behind. "The next time you want to start a fight with someone, try doing it away from the security camera's like all the other ruffians!" Mari shouted while her thugs dragged the pair away.

* * *

Klaud had been brought before the two students from before in a meeting room, additionally they were joined by a intimidating giant of a man, it was hard to believe he really was a student but he wore the uniform all the same.

"Allow me to introduce ourselves. You've already met Mari Watanabe." The more polite of the two students from before stated indicating the one with the arm band. "She's the head of the school's public morals comity. This is Katsuto Juumonji." Now indicating the larger man, he merely grunted in response. "The leader of the Club Management committee. And I am Mayumi Saegusa." The young woman who was speaking for the trio stood before she gave a short polite bow. "We are pleased to make your presence Klaud Reed."

"Pleasure. Now after what I did to those idiots, I can see being brought in to meet with the head of the disciplinary committee, but at the same stance would someone mind telling me what I did to the Club management committee and student council?" Klaud asked pointing at the president and the man who looked infinitely more qualified to be the head of the disciplinary board than the lanky looking woman off to her right.

"You're not in trouble." Katsuto stated matter of factually.

"Wow I really must have done something wrong!" Klaud stated letting out a short nervous laugh.

"That remains to be seen." Mari stated staring at the younger girl quite intensely. "During this time of year part of the duties of the Public morals commission head is to find replacements for the members of the board who have graduated. Although a second course student, your fighting ability is clearly far superior when compared to most of the student body."

"Obviously but so what? The reason for that is because this is a magic academy not a martial arts academy!" Klaud stated almost in a shout.

"We already have plenty of skilled magicians, what we really need is someone with sufficient hand to hand combat training to subdue multiple hostiles at once." Mari stated sizing up Klaud.

"Or in Layman's terms, me. The girl who had barely passed, with the slowest application ability, interference strength, magic tolerance and is a user of the 'archaic' ancient magic on top of all of that." Klaud spat listing off her numerous negative qualities.

"Because you are strong." Mari stated eyeing girl in front of her that was full of self doubt. "Any decent magician that lays their eyes upon you can tell that you are strong without a doubt."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note** : No reviews. How disappointing. But on with the show I suppose.

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Chapter 2: Practical Applications of Combat Magic

After she had been released by the Academy's big three Klaud went outside the school where she was picked up by her caregiver Sapphire and was driven home, where she now rested in the back yard on a lawn chair soaking up the sunlight in a single one piece swim suit. She was currently living in the abandoned part of town. The loss of over two third's of the planet's population had created a epidemic of ghost towns like these the world over. While in Klaud's opinion there was a lot of things that the land would be better for other than being left to rot out here, but for now it served it's purpose, as a low profile place to live. The Ancient magical Clans survive by keeping hidden, and keeping hidden meant that they didn't do things like buying or building big huge mansions in densely populated parts of cities. Such tasteless activities were for people who had way too much money to burn and too little attention for their tastes. Their situation involved neither.

"You seemed troubled by something." Laying down on top of a book not too far away, was what easily could be summarized as a tiny beanie-baby type toy taking the appearance of a white lion with brown bird wings. What was immensely more important than the toy's appearance however was the fact that it was talking. "Had a rough first day of school?" The toy asked with disinterest as it flipped a page in it's book.

"I got into another fight today. It seems that I was being scouted for the Public morals whatever." Klaud stated breathing an annoyed sigh. "It seems that I screwed up again Inari."

"Troublesome." The toy called Inari finally looked up from the book and directly faced the troubled Klaud. "So what do you plan to do about it?"

"Naturally, I'll have to refuse."

"That is extremely unwise." Klaud shot straight up and glared balefully at the toy. "You've already drawn attention to yourself, if you don't join the Public Morals committee without properly providing a reason then you'll just attract more attention to yourself. But if you give a excuse like 'I'm not joining the Public Morals committee because I want to join a different group instead' would be the more effective means by which to throw suspicion off of yourself. Either way, you will have to join a club now and you will draw attention to yourself whether you like it or not!"

"Great. We'll deal with it tomorrow." Klaud stated as she turned around in the chair and went to sleep.

"We?"

* * *

Inari noted that if he was human, he'd enjoy this situation immensely. He was resting on top of Klaud's breasts, a key ring around his neck that had served to make him into the pendant of a necklace for Klaud. As it was though, he wasn't, and he had been reduced to a fashion accessory.

"Why am I here again?" Inari asked crossing his arms to show his dissatisfaction.

"Because I need help to deal with this nonsense and that is what you are here for!" Klaud stated holding her talking fashion accessory up to face level. "Now stop talking or I'll hide you underneath my shirt!"

What a way to go, suffocated underneath a girl's breasts like some character from a anime.

"Then why don't you bring her along!?" Inari barked pointing out the blue haired woman in the driver's seat of the car.

"Because I am not a student~!" The driver playfully scolded waving her finger back and forth several times.

"Neither am I!" Was the angered makeshift fashion accessory's response.

"Nope! You're a necklace, and Necklaces shouldn't talk~!" As if following Sapphire's cue Klaud grabbed her makeshift fashion accessory and stuffed him down her shirt. It was a good thing that he just had the body of a stuffed toy, otherwise he really would suffocate.

"Well this day couldn't get worst." Klaud stated as she got out of the car in the school's parking lot.

"Have fun at school today sweetie!" Sapphire shouted sticking her upper body out of the car waving Klaud off.

"Yep, that'll do it." Klaud just hung her head low and scurried off like a prisoner to the gallows.

" _Now do you remember what are you going to do when you talk to this 'Mari' person?_ " Telepathic communication, a concept that honestly surprised Klaud that none of these so called 'Modern magicians' had picked up on as long as they could transmit Psion's or 'thought' particles to one another then these same thoughts could be conveyed telepathically.

"' _Sorry but I'm afraid that I cannot join the Public Morals Committee on account of the fact that wish to join other clubs and I fear that it will interfere in them as well._ '" Klaud mentally recited to her stuffed pendant.

" _Good, now get in there and crush all their hopes and dreams!_ "

Now mentally prepared Klaud walked into the meeting room of the Student council, where she saw Mayumi and Mari already preparing the the room for another meeting.

"Sorry but I'm afraid that I cannot join the Public Morals Committee on account of the fact that wish to join other clubs and I fear that it will interfere in them as well!" Klaud declared slamming door open.

"Ah good Klaud you're here. We've got a couple of other candidates for the position on the Public Morals committee if you'd follow us please." Mayumi stated directing Klaud out of the door.

"Wait did you just hear what I just said!?" Klaud shouted as the two girls filled out of the room.

"Yes, but don't worry, Mari is very reasonable and I'm sure that the two of you will reach a compromise on the situation." Mayumi stated smiling happily, her features carrying a deep intensity that made Klaud freeze with fear.

On that note, Klaud found herself standing in what amounted to a gymnasium, large enough for a class to exercise in, and at the center was a platform for magical duels. Lining up on that platform was Tatsuya and another young man of roughly the same height with brown hair.

"You've already met Tatsuya Shiba if memory serves." Mayumi directed Klaud's attention to the brown haired boy standing across from Tatsuya. "That is Hanzo Hattori, the student body president and the top duelist in the entire school."

"Impressive. But what about Tatsuya?" Klaud asked pointing at the student in question who was preparing his gun shaped CAD's.

"He came highly recommended by the new first year representative Miyuki Shiba." Mari explained staring intently at the would be combatants.

"Miyuki? His sister? Doesn't that sound a little bias, like she's just trying to make him sound good?" Klaud asked confused.

"Well Hanzo had the same concern, which is why he challenged him to a duel but I think it's a little different." Mayumi stated raising her finger in the air and making off like a lecturer. "For starters, you do understand that the position that Tatsuya is trying out for is quite dangerous don't you think?" That got Klaud's attention as another person who is 'trying out' for the same position as a member of the public Morales committee this information affected her greatly. "For starters, Magicians were originally bred by the world's governments to serve as mass produced human weapons. This school is full of them, and it's the responsibility of the public Morals committee to keep them in line. Recklessly putting someone who is not prepared to face something like that in front of a force like that amounts to sending them to their death don't you know? On the contrary, as his sister, wouldn't Miyuki know better than anyone what her brother is really capable of?"

"The fact that he's a course two doesn't have anything to do with Hanzo's doubts about him?" Klaud asked with clear suspicion on her features.

"That's the source of his suspicions, make no mistake about that. But that also has no meaning on Tatsuya's combat ability. Did you know, that the bulk of Magicians on the battlefield are actually what you would consider to be 'Course 2' students. Combat magic is simple, reliable, highly effective and virtually anyone can use it. Your ability to cast powerful large scale magical attacks is meaningless if your opponent can kill you before you get it fired off. That is the founding principal behind the concept of 'Practical Applications of Combat Magic.'" Mayumi explained smirking knowingly at Tatsuya.

"Are both participants ready?" Mari, who was serving as referee stood between the two of them.

"Ready." Hanzo stated his hand on his wrist.

"Ready." Tatsuya stated aiming a single one of his CAD guns at Hanzo.

"Begin!" Hanzo got the first shot off, firing magic sequences at Tatsuya.

Those magic sequences condensed the carbon dioxide in the air into chunks of Dry Ice the size of Golf balls. At the same time, the magic sequences converted the heat that was taken away from the Carbon Dioxide and turned that into Kinetic energy, and used that to hurl the chunks of dry ice at Tatsuya. Unfazed however, Tatsuya fired his guns off several times, not only did they rapidly exterminate the chunks of Dry ice before they could get anywhere near him, but at the same time he sent shock waves rippling through the air with sufficient strength and power to give those present Migraines, and Hanzo got the worst of it, falling from the stage unconscious.

"Ah. What just happened?" Klaud asked gaping in shock at the sight of Hanzo being taken down so easily.

" _Isn't it obvious?_ " Suddenly Klaud felt very uncomfortable as Inari began squirming underneath her shirt. " _Rather than simply rely on a magical formula, he used brute force to stun his opponent. He concentrated magical power into those guns, and then using that as ammunition sniped them out of the air, then he released that power in waves in different amounts, created a feeling in his opponent like overwhelming sea sickness. That was the uneasy feeling we just had right now._ "

"Well now that that's settled we now have one spot left on the Public Morals Committee!" Mayumi cheered happily clapping her hands together a few times before indicating the door leading into the gym. "Introducing Shun Morisaki!" Stepping through the door leading into the Gym, was none other than the same orange haired brat that Klaud had just clobbered the other day. Shun immediately caught sight of Klaud and froze as she seemed to burn a hole through his skull.

"I officially withdraw my application." Was Shun's simple and fearful response as he turned around and went back the way he came.

Mayumi smirked knowingly like some one whose plan had just gone off without a hitch. Turning around to face Klaud, she saw that she had already disappeared off to parts unknown.

* * *

Once in the Bathroom Klaud locked herself into a stall and yanked out Inari from underneath her shirt.

"WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA YOU PERVY LITTLE TOY!?" Klaud shouted strangling the doll like figure and shaking it back and forth.

"YOU'RE ONE TO TALK YOU SHOVED ME IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" The Semi strangled doll shouted back almost demonically directly into Klaud's face.

"I hate to break up this lover's spat." The two turned away from their argument and looked directly at Mayumi as she looked down at them from above the next stall smiling. "But I couldn't help but notice that's a talking stuffed animal that you're strangling there."

* * *

And thus after a short but futile bout of Klaud trying to back out of what was clearly her attempt to murder a talking stuffed animal Mayumi brought the pair back to the student council office to explain themselves to the big three of the school, Mari, Katsuto and Mayumi.

"Who here is familiar with the concept of a familiar?" Klaud asked darting between the three suspicion filled figures.

"It's a term that appears in Ancient Magical texts." Katsuto replied bluntly. "Magicians would sink large portions of Psions and Pushions into objects or animals in order to give them 'thought' or 'emotion' under their sway. This doesn't look too different."

In truth Katsuto's explanation wasn't too far off, Inari could be thought of a toy with a ridiculous amount of magical power sunk into him. But at the same time what Inari was was infinitely more complicated, like how all of that Magical power had transformed him into a truly fearsome creature that had merely taken on the temporary form of a toy.

"That's the basic idea anyway." Klaud stated crossing her arms.

"That's so cool!" Azusa Nakajou, the secretary for the student council, easily one of the shortest girl in the entire school with the features of a young orange haired child, and as Mayumi appropriately described her, a device Otaku who snatched up Inari and began examining pulling and tugging on him. "This reminds me just like those 'Griffins' that attacked the Great Asian alliance during the last invasion of Japan!"

"That's enough!" Before Azusa could gush anymore Klaud tore Inari from her hands and held him out of reach of her. "Inari isn't a toy for you to take apart to figure out where the batteries are! He's a proper living thing and I will not let you bully him do I make myself clear!" At Klaud's outburst Azusa looked like she had been dealt a vicious blow, the look on her face combining the best aspects of puppy dog pout and crying child. "Inari are you okay!?"

"Klaud... I think I see a light..." The Diminutive familiar stated raising a single paw into the air at the ceiling. "I'm going into the light now!" Inari slipped out of Klaud's grasp and flew into the air towards the lit light bulb in the ceiling.

"He'll be okay." Klaud tried to say reassuringly waving aside the group's concerns.

"My clan would be very interested in getting their hands on that toy." Katsuto stated watching the flying stuffed toy intently.

"No!" Klaud growled intently accusingly pointing a single finger in Katsuto's face. "My friend is not a frog to be dissected in some laboratory! Ignoring that, if people actually figured out how to create Familiars then all they'd do with them is create a race of Slaves and monsters!"

"We won't do anything drastic like that." Mayumi stated while she waved Klaud's concerns off with her hand. " The truth of the matter is that it would create more problems than it would solve." Somewhat solemnly Mayumi crossed her hands together and rested her chin on them. "'During the third World War, in order to prevent the wide spread use of Nuclear armaments, the human sub species called 'Magicians' were created as weapons of war, and have since then become a indispensable part of every day life.' You say that you wish to keep your friend safe because you don't want his to become a race of slaves and monsters? I'm telling you that humanity has already created one, they're called Magicians." Mayumi straighten her posture up again upon seeing the solemn looks of her two cohorts. "Fufufu! Look at me going off about my foolish ideas." Her laughter was hollow, empty of any enthusiasm, like she had tried to break the tension she had caused. "In any case, you should be aware of the fact that we aren't planning to expose your little friend to anyone. Nor for the matter in spite of us bullying you to do so a little bit we don't intend to force you join the public Morals committee. It's just that if you don't, then they'll just appoint someone that it'll just reinforce the long standing discrimination against Course 2 students."

"Whereas if it's me who is not only a course two but a Ancient magic user it'll go a long way to your goals." Klaud just let out a defeated sigh. "Fine you win."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, my old friend, the life blood by which I work. How I've missed you.

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Chapter 3: Research and Development of Theoretical Magic.

" _So much for going unnoticed._ " Inari mentally sighed as Klaud donned the red on black arm band of a Public Morals committee member. The arm band it should be noted was designed to intentionally clash with the uniform, so that it could immediately catch the eye's attention and cow any trouble makers into submission.

" _Oh shut up you! You got me into this too!_ " Klaud mentally shouted at Inari. " _Besides as long as we have secrets to keep allies to help us keep them would be helpful!_ "

" _Sure, sure, you can tell Rebecca that when she comes for your blood and my stuffing._ " Inari stated in a depressed tone, making Klaud sigh.

"Yah know, telepathic communication is a pretty impressive feat." Mayumi stated indicating the small intelligent toy that was hanging from Klaud's neck that she was secretly communicating with.

"Not really, I mean Psion's are just thought particles to begin with right? If we can transmit those from person to person then why not our actual thoughts that they're made of?" Klaud stated, leaving Mayumi a little stunned at the seemingly obvious revelation.

"What are you two talking about?" Tatsuya, now finished getting dressed with his holsters underneath his jacket.

"We were discussing theoretical magic, telepathic communication and the like." Mayumi stated attempting to brush Tatsuya off.

"Do you have a interest in theoretical magic?" Tatsuya asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice. "First you ask me about Familiars earlier. Then you get involved in our conversation about gravity controlled flight, and now you're asking around about telepathic communication."

Klaud glared suspiciously at Mayumi, prompting her to awkwardly scratch the back of her head.

"I simply had a thought that 'if Psion's are made of people's thoughts' then can we 'use psions to transmit people's thoughts?'" Klaud stated giving her shoulders a shrug.

"Plausible theory. We were having a similar one earlier about Gravity controlled flight." Tatsuya stated as he adjust the cuffs on his wrists.

"Well, do tell." Klaud stated smirking knowingly.

"For starters, we know that it's possible, the ancient magic users of old are often said to have easily pulled off such feats." Klaud smirked knowingly at that, which made Tatsuya think that the magic wasn't quite as ancient as he thought. "The main issue with gravity controlled flight magic is that in order to change direction a new spell has to be cast on top of the old one, even with the invention of the Loop cast system, the build up of magical interference will cause the magic to no longer be viable after eight or nine turns. To begin with: Isn't that just stupid? Magic is suppose to work on the principal of manipulating the Eidos not adding to it, if the previous magical formula is no longer viable after putting a new one on top of it, then isn't it best just to alter the original magical formula?"

"Hard to say." Klaud blocked out her stunned face with a cough into her hand. "For starters, all of this 'modern stuff' is just too complicated for a user of 'primitive ancient magic' like myself."

"Don't be modest. Ancient magic is by far more developed than Modern magic, if the ancient clans were to unite and combine their magical knowledge then they would surpass the ten great families by leaps and bounds." Klaud had to fend off the urge to blush, but it became easier when she saw the look on Tatsuya's face, not admiration but complete neutrality. He wasn't complimenting her just stating a fact. "In any case, we have to go on patrol now, it wouldn't look good if someone made a mess on our first day on the job."

For the purpose of patrolling, the various members of the Public Morals Committee had been put into pairs. Tatsuya and Klaud had been assigned to the area around the gym, where several crowds had formed demonstrating various different types of magic for the purpose of trying to encourage people to join their clubs. Then they saw a crowd had formed around one person in particular, Erika Chiba, a first year course 2 student and one of Tatsuya's recent acquaintances, it seemed that a lot of people from different clubs were harassing her all at once trying to get her to join them.

"Well this looks like it's gonna get ugly. You wanna do the honor's?" Klaud stated indicating the crowd that had formed.

Tatsuya whipped out one of his 'Silver Horn' guns and fired a trio of short controlled low frequency bursts of Psion's at alternating levels of input at the crowd giving them severe vertigo. Klaud leaped in and grabbed Erika and yanked her away to safety in the gym's second floor, at which point Tatsuya mercilessly switched to high frequency and finished them off, leaving them lying on the ground in a horrible state.

"Think about what you have done for a while." With that heartless declaration Tatsuya re-holstered his gun and was on his way back to the gym with Erika and Klaud.

"Thanks. You two saved me back there." Erika stated giving an awkward scratch of the back of her neck.

"As is in the job description." Tatsuya explained while he leaned over the balcony and looked down at the Kendo club who were doing their own demonstration.

"So I can tell." Erika stated with a smirk looking at the Public Morals committee bands that were on the pair's upper left arms, just below their shoulders. "In any case you should keep a eye on those trouble makers down there." Erika stated pointing down towards the two clubs that had gathered down below. "One side is the Kendo club, who practice the traditional Japanese sport, and the other is the Kenjutsu club, who practice mixing in magic with their sword style. The two of them have quite a heated rivalry from what I hear. Especially between her." Erika pointed down to the young lady who had just won the math between herself and another student. "And that guy." Then Erika pointed over to the head of the Kenjutsu club.

"What's the story between them?" Klaud asked looked between the two of them several times.

"Basically, that lady is named Sayaka Mibu, back in middle school she managed to rank second in the National Middle School Kendo tournament and was for a while praised as a beautiful female swords woman. Then she started to go to school here, where her weak magical power came to light, and now like most other course two students she has been branded as a failure before she could even try. And now the Kenjutsu club head's Takeaki Kirihawa's favorite hobby is to harass her." Erika stated with a thoroughly disappointed tone of voice.

After Erika finished her explanation the audience had broken out into applause after Sayaka won. She removed her mask revealing her attractive features, dark brown hair that was tied into a pony tail with big blue eyes. Once the bulk of the applause had passed there was still one person clapping, slowly, sarcastically almost condescending in it's own right, and Takeaki was the one doing it.

"Very good Sayaka, once again you've proven the overwhelming lack of worthy opponents for you in the Kendo club." Takeaki stated, his voice dripping with has much sarcasm as his hands were moments earlier.

"Are you suggesting that I might find such individuals among the Kenjutsu club?" Sayaka asked accusingly pointing her weapon at Takeaki.

"I'm saying, that you have one right here!" Takeaki stated, reading a sword stance and putting on the safety mask.

"If you insist." Sayaka replaced the safety mask and the two combatants went at it.

Takeaki's desire to showoff ended up overwhelming any fighting skill that he might have and he ended up being quickly and efficiently cut down by Sayaka.

"Damn it!" Takeaki activated his CAD arm band, and suddenly a whirling mass of orange air appeared around Takeaki's shikai.

"You see that Tatsuya!?" Klaud stated staring in surprise at the newly formed magical spell.

It was called sonic blade, a high frequency close range oscillation spell that could give any object of decent length a cutting edge worthy of a surgeons scalpal, a b-rank lethal spell.

"Working on it!" Extending both of his arms a pair of black wrist band type CAD's were revealed. Orange colored magical formula was emitted from the CAD's before colliding with each other and exploding outwards and neutralizing Takeaki's spell.

"My turn now!" Klaud leaped from the balcony and landed on top of Takeaki with a dull noise echoing around the entire room. "Greetings arrogant jerks of the school, we're the first year course two students Tatsuya Shiba and Klaud Reed sent here to keep all of you from running wild on us!" Klaud stated boldly to the entire crowd.

With that declaration, the first course students in the Kenjutsu club finally had enough. Most of them readied weapons and CAD's to attack, Tatsuya jumped down to ground level to join Klaud and raised his fingers to snap them. In a single instant, a sonic boom echoed throughout the entire building, every window on campus shattered, and ear drums by the dozens had been popped.

"OUCH!" Klaud screamed, not that she could hear anymore having just been on the receiving end of a sonic boom at point blank range. "That was just... Ow there!" Klaud briefly wondered if that was some kind of sound based magic, or more of Tatsuya's brute force approach to magic, but right now her ears hurt too much for her to really care.

* * *

In the end, the school's insurance covered the cost of the windows, now shatter proof, the various students underwent low level healing magic to heal their relatively minor injuries. After that Tatsuya and Klaud filed their report, that the head of the Kenjutsu club Takeaki Kirihara attempted to utilize a lethal spell on Sayaka Mibu and Klaud intervened to stop him, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the Kenjutsu club attacking her and being forcibly subdued by Tatsuya. Takeaki acknowledge his wrong doing and gladly accepted his punishment, leading his subordinates to follow suit. All in all everyone managed to escape the day unscathed. That said, now that they finally had the chance to talk again there was one question that was bothering Klaud about what Tatsuya had done earlier.

"I call it 'Anti-magical formula.'" Tatsuya explained as he held out the two general use CAD's that he was keeping with him throughout the day. Unlike the Silver Horns, which were designed for the purpose of shooting concentrated balls of Psions for the purpose of smashing magical formula before it could be cast, these could utilize a wide array of magical formula, but they were also out of date by several years. "Did you know, that you can cancel out a noise by producing another noise of equal power yet opposite frequency?"

"Yah is that what you did back in the Gym?" Klaud asked pointing at the outdated pieces of technology.

"It works on the same principal, utilizing the same spell he was casting at two different frequencies I created a massive buildup of that spell that created too much interference for it to be used." Tatsuya explained while he put the duel CAD's back into storage in the Public Morals office. "That's pretty impressive, you should think about patenting that." Klaud stated with a smirk on her face.

"That might be unwise." Now Klaud looked a tad bit confused as Tatsuya continued with his explanation. "There are two flaws with the technology. The first is that anyone who uses it has to figure out the exact magical formula that their enemy is using before they can use it against them. The second is not so much a flaw as it is a consequence. Currently the only 'Anti magic' technology that exists right now is called Antinite. It's a rare material, tightly regulated by the governments. If it fell into the hands of unsavory sorts, then the havoc they would be able to wreak would be unprecedented." Tatsuya began leaving the room.

"Which means that the super high value material that everyone is scrambling to get their hands on is only worth the price as two third rate CAD's." Klaud stated as she burst out in laughter.

"Yes I suppose that's one way to look at it." Tatsuya stated dryly before moving on.

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 **Review Section** :

Duked: Patience my newly acquired reader, we didn't even start learning about Tatsuya's back ground until like the seventh chapter. If all goes as planned we'll get some insight into Klaud's home life starting in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note** : Another day, another Chapter, good to see that I started to garner some interest for this story though. Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 4: The Importance of the Magical Families

When Klaud got home, the first sight she was greeted with was Sapphire standing by the door holding a phone in her hand.

"Call for you from your sisters." Sapphire stated holding the phone out for Klaud.

"Ignore." Klaud stated, a brief shiver going up her spine as she said that.

"They knew you were going to say that. So here's what Rebecca said. 'Tell my worthless sister that we are coming to pay her a visit.'" If a shiver went up Klaud's spine before, then a steel pipe was shoved straight up her behind scaring her stiff.

"NO...!" A terrified Klaud ran through the apartment building and into a small cupboard the sound of several locks being secured into place soon to follow. "I WON'T DO IT! I WON'T! I WON'T!"

"Well that went better then I expected." Inari stated in a sarcastic tone of voice as he climbed out of the discarded bag full of Klaud's belongings.

"Come on Klaud! You do this every time they come for a visit!" Sapphire stated crouching down to knock on the little door.

"Not true. Last time she nailed the door shut." Inari pointed out flying next to Sapphire.

"Does it seem quiet all of a sudden to you?" Sapphire asked legitimate concern on her usually easily amused face.

Inari blew the locks off of the little makeshift panic room and slung the door open only to discover the little crawl space empty. Instead they believe they identified the reason for the empty room, a small hole that was just big enough for Inari to crawl through clearly dug out by Klaud in advance.

"Looks like she made this tunnel using Earthy and then used Shrink to escape. Clow Reed himself only knows where she's gone now." Inari stated while he rubbed his chin with his paw.

"Well go get her!" Sapphire stated indicating the hole with her hands.

"Me!? You know I can't go outside!" Inari stated as he drew attention to the beanie baby type body that he had.

"Well I can't fit through the hole! So call me when you get out and I can come pick you up and get a lead on where Klaud is hiding at the same time!" Sapphire stated as she handed Inari a head set.

* * *

While at school, Klaud had taken the liberty of acquiring the home address of a extra reliable person and was now knocking on his door.

"Klaud!?" Answering the door was none other than Miyuki Shiba, Tatsuya's younger sister by ten month's.

"H-H-Hide me!" Supporting the thoroughly terrified girl's weight Miyuki carried her into the house and into the basement, where Tatsuya was working in what could best be described as a magical laboratory.

"Miyuki, what's going on?" Tatsuya stated as he summed up Klaud's fragile looking form.

"I don't know! She just showed up on the door step shivering!" Miyuki went to go get some decaf while Tatsuya sat her down on the machine he used to tune CAD's, a large surgical table looking contraption.

After calming her rattled nerves Klaud had decided to give the pair a much deserved an explanation for her unexpected visit and the current state she was in.

"It's my sisters, Rebecca, Madison and Maylin." Klaud was still shaking, the tea cup rattled against the holder as she held them. For this fearless girl to be shaking like this, and those names that Tatsuya heard her list off.

"Your name isn't Reed is it?"

"No." Klaud shook her head side to side. "It's Kinomoto."

Tatsuya went to his computer and searched 'Kinomoto Sisters' on google. Among the ancient magical clans, the Kinomoto family were considered royalty. Descended from two prestigious magical clans which seemed to appear out of thin air during the late twentieth century to early twenty first century with as well as the Lee family of China the Kinomoto family's matriarch Sakura Kinomoto was capable of feats not seen for centuries nor seen again since. Among the current generation of the Kinomoto's there were three sisters that have been called 'the three great gods of magic.'

"Maylin Kinomoto. I have history with that woman." Tatsuya stated the sound of his cracking knuckles echoed throughout the room. While he was serving in the military he once worked under a woman name Maylin, who put her soldiers through training that went beyond the realm of being harsh, he sincerely thought he was going to die on more than one occasion. And here was her picture, staring at him with one red eye and a eye-patch CAD that he himself made for her in order to restore vision in her left eye.

"Rebecca Kinomoto." If Maylin was a sledge hammer then Rebecca was a scalpel. Her goal seemed to be focus on continuing the research and development of ancient magical techniques, whatever magical formula she got her hands on was usually strictly classified, if not by the influence of the ancient clans then by the government. At the same time though, she was a notorious party girl. In one report wherein the the Japanese military had sent some of it's messengers to deliver a not so politely worded message to her she racked up debt in the seven digit category at several major seedy restaurants and bars and left nothing behind but a note detailing the messengers and stating that they would cover all costs. They weren't seen from again for a year.

"And finally Madison Kinomoto." As oppose to her two sisters who involved themselves in the affairs of the government, Madison was a queen of industry, a innovator who figured out every which way magic could be applied to daily life, patented it, and made a fortune. Several fortunes in fact. It was safe to say that she had more money then most small nations combined. "These three. They're dangerous beyond the realm of common sense." Tatsuya stated, his eyes darting around the screen at the three faces.

"No wonder she's scared to meet them again." Miyuki stated as she read through the biographies of the three pillars of the ancient magical community.

"I WON'T! I WON'T! I WON'T! I WON'T!" Klaud desperately pleaded as she curled into the fetal position and cried into her knees.

"I've seen how these people treat those that they aren't close with. I had at least assumed that they would treat someone they were close with a little better but..." Tatsuya stated, stunned at Klaud's current predicament.

"Obviously not." Miyuki stated looking at the pitiful stated that Klaud had been reduced to.

Near as Tatsuya could remember, not even the most fragile soldiers in his unit ended up in that state after spending a night with Maylin, but just the mere mention of her name reduced Klaud to this. The two Shiba siblings looked at each other and then back to Klaud several times. The next day Sapphire went to pick up Klaud and ended up driving all three of the First high Students to school. They didn't say a word until they ran into Erika outside.

"Yowza! What happened to her?" Erika asked pointing to the normally energetic Klaud.

"She got a message from her family last night. She hasn't been taking it very well." Tatsuya explained in short order, even his normally stiff face looked a little worried.

"I won't. I won't. I won't." Klaud repeated in a pitiful voice.

"Ugh. I see what you mean. In any case boss ladies Mari and Mayumi wanted to talk to you guys." Erika stated pointing behind her at the building where the meetings of the student council, public morals committee and club management committee are usually held.

* * *

"Although it's somewhat last minuet, we are expecting a number of VIP's today from the Kin..." Both Tatsuya and Mayuki rushed to clamp their hands over Mayumi's mouth but it was already too late, Klaud had already fled the room. "What is with you people!?" Mayumi shouted in displeasure as she pushed to two Shiba siblings away from her. "You're both acting very strange today!"

"We'll explain later." Tatsuya stated with a sigh as he scratched the back of his head. "Miyuki, explain to her what's going on, I have to go chase down Klaud before she runs away again." That was the last thing that Tatsuya stated before he took off after Klaud.

Tatsuya activated his magic called 'Elemental Eyes.' While it was true that magic worked by manipulating the ethereal dimension known as Eidos magicians weren't the only one's who can manipulate it. As long as they have their own thoughts and feelings people and certain animals produced Psions and Pushions, and so long as it was within twenty four hours then the Eidos of the objects around them when those feelings were had would be retained. Finding the trail of fear that Klaud had just left behind was child's play.

"Well, well, well." Outside in the school's courtyard Klaud had been cornered by a group of course one students mostly consisting of the Kenjutsu club members and led by Shun. "What do we have here? Not so tough anymore." Klaud was emotionally vulnerable and as a result mentally and physically vulnerable as well. And Tatsuya saw blood lust in Shun's eyes.

"What are you moron's doing here?" Takeaki had sneaked up on the crowd with his shikai resting on top of his shoulder, standing on either side of him were grey haired first year and a brown haired first year, both in course one.

"Ah Takeaki! Good to see you. I was just about to teach this weed a lesson to respect her superiors. You wanna join in? You still should be sore from what happened yesterday." Shun stated as he waved over Takeaki.

"That is that. This is this." At once, Takeaki pressed the tip of his weapon to Shun's throat, beaming a deep seated killing intent directly into his eyes. "And if I was you, I'd discontinue 'this' at once!"

"Honoka!" The grey haired girl stated her hand already on a CAD hidden up her sleeve.

"Right Shizuku!" The Brown haired one stated in agreement.

"Troublesome." Outside of the gate leading into the academy, a woman held a single card to her lips. "Float. Take that rock." The card took on the form of a pink sphere with little wings on the side that then proceeded to enter a small stone on the ground giving it a pink aura. Unnoticed by anyone else, the rock then proceeded to make it's way several feet above the heads of the academy students. Then the woman took out a second card. "Big. Make it big enough to crush all of them." The card turned into a blue light before flying up above the stone before taking on a humanoid appearance. Its physical form manifests as an extremely tall, slim and lithe, blue-colored, young woman dressed like a medieval princess, draped all in cognate shades of blue, with long sleeves that obscure its hands and it wears a divided hennin atop its head. In addition, the figure was also wearing a long, billowing blue cape draped across its shoulders that falls down along its back. "Before you Moronic people continue with that Ill advised course of action I strongly recommend that you look up." Everyone's attention drawn by the woman's voice, they looked into the air and gaped in shocked surprise at the sight of the huge stone that was blocking out the sun light when they only thought some clouds had moved in front of the sun. Then they fearfully turned their attention back to the woman at the gate. "Don't scream. Don't talk. Just scurry away back into your little hole and don't come back out until you are allowed to am I understood?" With this the gathered offending course one students all ran back into the academy, the woman made a 'cut' gesture with her hand and at once the massive stone suddenly plummeted back to earth and returned to it's normal size. "So you didn't run away when I told you to." Now the woman's attention was on Takeaki's group who still had yet to leave. "Impressive. Stupid but Impressive."

"My subordinates believed that I should be avenged for my lost during my little spat with your little sister I presume? I do not." Takeaki explained while he tucked his weapon into his belt.

"Shun is from our class, we thought it important to keep him from doing something exceptionally stupid. Though it would seem that we were not needed." The girl called Shizuku stated before she looked to Honoka and nudged towards the school, the two girls and swordsman running off gladly.

"And then there was the one." The woman walked over to Klaud and stood over her, taking out phone and calling to people. "Yo. I found her, she's at the school." Closing the phone the woman stared down at her younger sister. "Hey, it's me Maylin." Klaud didn't respond. "So I guess you blame me for this miserable state you're in?" Klaud still didn't move from her state of being rolled into a ball, forcing her look at her, Maylin say that Klaud was unconscious, her mental abuse having finally reached it's peak. "I don't know what we're going to do with you." With that Maylin picked Klaud up and walked into the school.

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 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: An excellent question. As explained in this chapter, Reed is merely an alias with Klaud's real name being Kinomoto. The various magical families value their secrets, the Ancient Magical clans doubly so. Where as the ten great families keep their secrets to hoard their power families like the Kinomoto's keep them because they believe that if their magical secrets became common knowledge then they will ultimately used for negative purposes, and that is a violation of the very ideals of Clow Reed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note** : Thanks to Enigma95 for pointing out my error in the earlier chapter, I don't intend for it to happen again, but I do appreciate when my mistakes are pointed out to me.

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Chapter 5: Magical Forensic Science

In addition to Maylin who had arrived earlier and Klaud who was already there Rebecca and Madison also arrived at the school and now the four of them were inside of the meeting hall lounging about and were now face to face with Katsuto, Mayumi and Mari. Maylin wore military dress, in combination with the custom CAD that was her eye patch and the white hair and red eye that differentiated her from her sisters. Rebecca on the other hand was wearing glasses, with jeans and a red low cut tank top. And that just left Madison, who was fashionably dressed in a pink button up shirt kilt combination, the latter of which which had a single suspender strap connected to it and looped around to the back. There was another detail that had been made obvious when Maylin carried Klaud in, these were her sisters.

"Yah know, I seriously thought that Tatsuya was kidding when he said that Klaud was part of the Kinomoto family. But now looking at the four of you side by side, it actually seems kinda obvious." Mayumi stated her eyes darting about to and fro each of the sisters. "So what is all of this about, is that infamously stubborn family of Ancient magic users known for refusing to socialize with the magical community at large finally stepping out of the shadows?"

"That's for Klaud to decide Clow Reed help us all." Maylin stated looking at her younger sister who was curled into a ball in a corner in the room.

"Reed again. Klaud used that name as part of her alias, who exactly is this Clow Reed?" Mayumi asked looking at the Kinomoto sisters suspiciously.

"If you studied real magic instead of this half ass garbage you would know." Maylin snapped downing the contents of her glass. "As for what you do and don't ultimately know that is another thing for Klaud to decide."

"Now now sister. Your hot blooded temper has already created enough trouble for you? Case in point." Rebecca stated as she drew Maylin's attention to Klaud's quivering form in the corner.

"Me? Who was the one who roped her into a six month fishing expedition just to pay off a debt to a bar?" Maylin asked glaring with a look on her face not unlike hatred.

"Says the one who made her run ten kilometer laps until she needed titanium knee joints? Not to mention the push ups, sit ups, squats, oh yes, I believe it's fair to say that thanks to you at least twenty percent of Klaud's entire body is artificial replacement bits." Rebecca replied as she downed the contents of her glass.

"Oh Please half of that was you experimenting on her!" Maylin snapped back, the two sisters constant bickering getting the general point across that Klaud has a very difficult home life.

"They're going to be like this for hours! I recommend we make a strategic retreat until they cool down a little bit." Madison stated leaning into the ear of Mayumi. Thus the three pillars of First High School, Madison and Klaud being dragged out of the room by Katsuto. "It's alright Klaud, they're going to be far too busy arguing to hurt you again." Not that Klaud noticed, still off to dream land by the looks of things. "Truth is." Madison sighed before she continued. "All three of us have done a lot of horrible things to her."

"By the sounds of things, Maylin put her through some kind of hell camp, and Rebecca experimented on her. So what did you do to her?" Mayumi asked glaring a suspicious glare at Madison.

"I made her into my doll." Not quite following what Madison was saying they non the less allowed her to continue with what she was saying. "My adorable little sister, that I didn't want to share with the rest of the world, nor did I want to wind up on one of this planet's war torn battle fields. So I just kept her in my room all day dressing her up in the pretty little dresses that I made, like a prisoner. The three of us completely took over her life, and just when she might have found a place where she didn't have to be afraid of us anymore."

"All three of you show up in her life again." Mayumi stated now seeing what was happening to Klaud. "But why?"

"Blanche." That got the three pillar's of the school's attention. "The radical off shoot of a peaceful organization that wishes to reduce or eliminate modern societies dependence and bias acceptance of magic. They're in this city, we think they might even be in this very school."

"In this school with Klaud you mean, you're here to protect her." Mayumi stated a smile clear on her features.

"After everything the three of us have done to her? I'm afraid that we are not aloud to say something so hypocritical. No, we were given an assignment to exterminate a infestation of cockroaches, and that is what has brought us here today." With that Madison returned into the room to bicker with her sisters.

"Is she gone?" The surprised student council president suddenly looked down at Klaud who with one open eye looked around the hallway before getting up and brushing herself off.

"Wait, was that whole thing today just an act?" Mari asked a hint of anger at Klaud who was seemingly so mortally terrified that she passed out.

"My mortal terror of my sisters? Yah, that was real. That's why I tried to run away from them, when that didn't work I just decided to use their desire to spend quality time with me to figure out the most effective method to get them out of my life again." While Klaud was brushing herself off the others were just staring at her in shocked surprise. "Point of interest, when Maylin wasn't destroying my body's joints, she was drilling warfare tactics into my head instead."

"Wait they were serious about the titanium knee joints?" Katsuto stated surprise clear on his normally dull looking face.

With a serious and unamused look on her face, Klaud removed from her pocket a single fridge magnet and dropped it on the elbow of her other arm, and it stuck to it. True it wasn't her knee, but it did convey her point, the answer to their question was yes.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to go and get my sisters out of my life again." On that note Klaud went off into somewhere a little more private.

For the time being the computer lab was empty so Klaud had the time necessary to enact her plot. Firstly she brought out the key that was hanging around her neck and it magically extended into a staff. The staff was long and gold colored, it would be fair to say that it had a element of royalty to it, on top of that, it was topped off by a large round disk with several spikes sticking out of it's sides at uneven lengths, not unlike a cartoonish sun. From a pouch on her belt, Klaud pulled out a card depicting a wolf that looked to be made out of lightning. Letting the card float in midair, Klaud the began twirling her staff.

"O great key that hides the power of light, I command thee to draw upon Ancient power, both near and far, to come to my side, discard your previous form and release your true power!" Slamming the head of the staff into the floating card and caused it to explode before reforming into the form of a wolf that was made out of electricity. "Lightning, can you find all the information there is on a organization called Blanche?" Letting out a growl of acknowledgment the electrified beast entered the school's computer systems. It wasn't hard to find what he was looking for, there was a back door program leading from the school's servers into the government's classified files. Thus after a few moments of power surges raging through the school Lightning came back with the information that Klaud wanted. "Radical offshoot of peaceful organization... I already knew that. I need to know their faces. Members often wear a red, green and white wrist band. Useful but I don't think anyone would wear such an obvious indicator in broad daylight with people looking for them. Leader is Hajime Tsukasa, elder half brother of one Konoe Tsukasa first academy course 2 senior year and captain of the Kendo club. Thanks lightning, I owe yah one."

Releasing a small growl of acknowledgment the lightning spitting beast returned to card form and Klaud tucked him away into the deck of cards she kept holstered on her belt. Now that Klaud had found a target she began making her way to the Kendo club in order to get some much needed answers. That is she was on her way to the Kendo club, when she ran into an unexpected person who was watching what she was doing. A certain black haired with pink highlights course 2 first year who was normally wearing glasses. Right now though not only had she not had her glasses on but she also looked quite scared for some reason or another.

"Oi Mizuki what's wrong with you?" When Klaud tried to reach out to her, Mizuki instead ran away in total fear.

"Can't say I blame her for being afraid after the day I've been having. Still something must have spooked her." Not paying the odd behavior any mind Klaud walked off for the Kendo club.

* * *

Passing by the Student Cafe Klaud saw Sayaka who had just finished a conversation with Tatsuya. Her grumbling stomach reminded her that she had not yet eaten and she needed to talk to Sayaka about Blanche anyway so she decided to kill two birds with one stone and took Tatsuya's seat across from her.

"This spot taken?" Klaud asked while she waved over one of the waitresses.

"Not at all, I was going to go looking for you after I talked to Tatsuya anyway." Aside from Tatsuya, Klaud was probably one of the strongest course two magicians in the school, after all she managed to take down an entire group of course one students and the entire Kenjutsu team, so the fact that she's strong is not something that's really up for debate. "Basically, I'd like you to join a group that was recently started here at the school."

"Are you talking about the Kendo club, cause if you're not then you do realize that it's illegal to be part of two clubs at once right?" Klaud asked as her Egg McMuffin arrived and she dug in.

"No no nothing like that." Sayaka stated waving her hands around defensively. "More accurately it's a sort of a protest group against the treatment we course two students receive." By the way things were going, Klaud would say that she just hit the Jackpot.

"You're mistaken." Klaud stating shocking Sayaka, Klaud on the other hand took a bite out of her breakfast sandwich before she continued. "Your little protest group Blanche was started in Tokyo when your buddies brain washed a magician into a suicide attack on a government building. They think magicians are treated better just case we get paid more then them." Ignoring Sayaka's stunned expression Klaud took another bite of her food. "But the reason for that is because the bulk of us are forcibly roped into a unreasonable situation where we are treated like disposable slaves, and while it might look we get paid better, if you compared the amount both sides, in terms of 'paid by the hour' we make a lot less." Klaud shoved the last of her meal into her mouth while she pondered the last bit of her statement. "What did the president say 'Magicians are a race of genetically engineered slaves?'"

"But that is completely different from the situation I'm talking about! We course 2 students are...!"

"Made up largely of individuals who were forced to go to a school that they did not want to in order to be processed into slave labor and cannon fodder, titles like 'course 1 and course 2' or 'Weeds and Blooms' don't matter in the eyes of the public, the moment that we graduate our fates are sealed." Klaud calmly explained while she wiped the mess off of her mouth. "Historically speaking, even thought they're a minority, it's the violent terrorist groups that take all the attention of the public, and as such they end up representing the majority as well." Having finally finished her meal, Klaud got up from her chair and turned her back to Sayaka. "So a word of advice, quit your stupid little bellyaching club, because they've recently caused me a bit of trouble, and if we meet on the battle field, we will not be friends!"

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 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Yes thank you for pointing that out for me, I will admit that with the number of names that start with M and ends in I in this show I got confused for a while there. The Mayuki error has already been corrected.

Duked: Thank you for saying so. For future reference, Klaud is a girl/bit of a tomboy thanks mostly to Maylin. I'm not sure if you're properly aware of this or not, but both Eriol and Clow Reed were kind of sleeper Gays in the anime and Manga. That said Eriol is one of Klaud's ancestors, in that he provided some of his sperm to the equation at some point in time.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note** : No Reviews, shame, but for the next chapter, I plan to have some exciting action bits for you all to enjoy. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 6: Study of Anti-Magic

A ware house on the docks in the city, here in this temporary headquarters a gathering of individuals with red, white and Green wrist bands had occurred, among them, one Sayaka Mibu.

"Fellow members of the Anti magic revolution!" The group's leader was a pale young man, but between his lanky figure and white hair he looked much older, this was the infamous Japanese Blanche Branch leader Hajime Tsukasa. "The time of our deliverance is nigh! In the coming days our allies in First High school will open the path for us to occupy their precious little academy!" With a wave of his hand Hajime revealed boxes full of what looked like orange wrist CAD's. "And against these Antinite Projectors, their precious magic will be obsolete!" No matter how you looked at it, rather than a peaceful protest, it sounded to Sayaka like they were planning a military invasion. Just another thing on a growing list of things that Sayaka noted just didn't sound right. "With this, we will win our rights to equality by force! And no one will stand in our way!" Hajime raised one arm into the air, and a flash of purple light was produced from his hand and shown on the entire crowd. With that Sayaka forgot her worries for another day, after all she had her rights to fight for.

* * *

Having hid herself in the girls bathroom and was hyperventilating was one Mizuki Shibata.

"Hello. Mizuki. I know you're in there." Miyuki stated as she knocked on the door. "Can I come in?" Rather than coming in with her into the stall, Mizuki instead came out. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Klaud is dangerous." Mizuki stated in a hushed voice. "The sheer number and power of spirits that surround her." Mizuki clearly remembered the rainbow Kaleidoscope of colors that swarmed Klaud's body, which even to her eyes without her glasses on, had been reduced to a shadowy figure to the back drop of a rainbow. "If she wanted to, she could take over this entire country in one night."

"Are you sure? It's not like Japan is a pushover, it is after all one half of one of the world's major superpowers the Japan-Indo alliance." Miyuki stated waving a finger in the air.

"Maybe. But those spirits. They're not like anything that I have ever seen before in my life. I sincerely doubt that a tank, or a jet plane, or even a magician would be able to stand up to her." Mizuki stated still breathing heavy from her little scare. It wasn't that she thought Klaud would ever do her harm, but when faced with an overwhelming power, and especially when dealing with such a timid girl like her, fear was the natural reaction.

"Come on, some food will make you feel better." Miyuki stated as she led Mizuki out of the bath room. "Yah know, that terrifying girl that you're so afraid of is having a pretty rough day herself."

"Really?" Mizuki asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Some family members that she doesn't get along with came by today and made some trouble for her. Some of the course 1 students that she was arguing with the other day took notice and made some more trouble for her." Miyuki explained while leading Mizuki to the cafe.

"You would know all about making trouble, Bloom." At that cold declaration, both girls turned around and was faced with the sight of the head of the Kendo club Kinoe Tsukasa. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like a chance to talk with miss Shibata in private."

"And I wonder what kind of conversation you would have." Turning around, Kinoe was greeted by the sight of Klaud standing behind him. "Could it be that you plan on giving her the same speech your subordinate Sayaka gave me earlier about joining your little bellyaching club?" At this Klaud revealed a white, red and green wrist band which she had began to twirl around her finger in a manner that intentionally showed it off. "Quite the bold fashion accessory you have here." Kinoe only now put two and two together and looked down at his wrist where his Blanche membership band was suppose to be only for it to not be there. "Speaking of, even though I have no interest in joining your little club, doesn't mean I don't have a interest in your club. On the contrary I will be seeing all of you very soon!"

Klaud stated handing Kinoe back his wrist band, the latter grabbed it with an unnecessary amount of force with a dissatisfied look on his face before running off. For the most part, the rest of the day proceeded without incident, Klaud avoided her sisters and the meeting room for the student council that they have taken over as their own personal club house like the entire area was quarantined. As far as she was concerned it was. It wasn't until final period that something noisy started to happen.

"Attention students of First high school! We are the '2 Courses Protest Group.'" Tatsuya recognized that the voice belonged to Sayaka. "We will no longer remain quiet while we are treated as worthless second rate people!"

Naturally, the Public Morals Committee prepared to act. Mari, Tatsuya, Klaud and various committee members had gathered together outside of the broad casting room. Sayaka had insistently given Tatsuya her phone number during their meeting a couple of days earlier, with the intention that he would call her back when he changed his mind. Thus Tatsuya picked up his phone to call her while she continued to preach on the speaker phone in the radio broadcast room. Tatsuya didn't pay the magical lights behind him any mind, he just assumed that Klaud was preparing to use a magical spell behind him. Then he heard the sound of a phone ringing. Turning around Tatsuya saw the source of the noise. Sayaka, alongside her two cohorts, had somehow been extracted from inside the radio broadcasting room without making a noise and without the door even opening. The apparent culprit, Klaud, briefly flashed a card that said 'the Quiet' before putting it back away into her deck holder.

"Your welcome." Was Klaud's disgruntled statement, directed at the stunned members of the public morals committee.

"But, how..." Was Sayaka's stunned statement a look of complete disbelief on her features. "HOW, HOW, HOW!?" Now Sayaka grabbed Klaud by her blazer and a began shaking her.

"Don't you have bigger things to worry about?" Klaud removed Sayaka's hands and pulled out a pull tie and used it as a make shift pair of handcuffs for Sayaka. "Like being brought up on charges."

"Oh as to be expected from the capable group of people Mari has put together." The group turned to face Mayumi who was just arriving alongside Katsuto and their second year lieutenants Azuza and Takeaki. "It hasn't even been five minuets since they started their broadcast and already everything has been wrapped up in a bow!"

"It was all Klaud's doing President." Mari stated pointing out Klaud who was still in the back. "She used some type of instantaneous movement magic to yank them out of there. In any case what should we do with these trouble makers President?" Mari asked while Klaud threw her the bundle of pull ties.

"As a start I'd like you to let them go." Mayumi stated stunning both the public Morals committee and the would be protesters. "While their methods were quite troublesome, they are allowed to express their opinions and they are opinions I for the most part share."

"Whatever you say president." Shooting Klaud and Tatsuya a suspicious look Mari none the less made use of a pocket knife to cut loose the bound Sayaka. "If you want people to listen to you, then taking part of the school hostage and forcing everyone to listen to you is not the way to do it. I will call a general assembly tomorrow, and the head of your little equality movement can speak to me and the school then."

With that, the last of last period went off without anymore interruptions. Klaud was walking outside to meet Sapphire to take her home. Only instead of her Car, Sapphire was instead standing in front of the driver's side door of a limousine holding up a cardboard sign with her name on it. At once, Klaud turned around on her heel and went back into the school, intending to secure alternate transportation home.

"Hmm. That's fair enough I suppose, too many people as it is know that we are her sisters. It would not be wise to be seen driving back to the apartment together." Maylin explained with a bored look on her face and her chin resting on her fist.

"It also means that we have a chance to continue where we left off in our meeting earlier." Madison explained while she downed the contents of a glass of orange juice.

"Are we to presume that Klaud doesn't intend to ride with us back to the apartments?" Sapphire asked the three sisters, to which they directed her to the driver's seat.

"So, Blanche is in a warehouse on the dock side, and we think the group's leader is using his brother to drum up support at the school for their little exercise in stupidity." Rebecca explained while she reviewed information on a tablet. "The real question here is how are we going to deal with it?" Basically, they already knew that a Lightning card broke into the school's servers, and they had fairly good reason to suspect that it was Klaud who did it, most likely with the intention for them to be done with their work already so that they would go away and leave her alone with post haste. "The real question here is, are we going to let her?" Rebecca asked looking at her two cohorts.

"Although Klaud knows how to put on a brave face, her biggest weakness has been the timid side of her personality. If she is going to go through with this foolishness, then she will have to discard that side of her personality." Maylin explained noting the drop in the quality of buildings from the more populated district into the abandoned part that Klaud was living in.

"Are you guys crazy? Those guys are armed with guns and Antinite transmitters! She'll get destroyed!" Madison snapped fear clear on her features.

"I propose that we wait." Rebecca stated as both of her sisters looked at her with matching looks of confusion between her sisters. "We let Klaud take the lead, we send our own spy into follow her, and if she needs help then she will receive it, but if she resolves the situation on her own, then she will have grown." With that, the three sisters had agreed on their course of action in deciding Klaud's growth.

* * *

Klaud had actually foreseen a situation like this a good long while ago, and hence came prepared. Using a fold up Bicycle Klaud rode into the populated district of the city, where she rode all the way to Tatsuya's house where he and Miyuki were already preparing dinner.

"Hiding from your sisters again?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud and sizing up the fact that she had clearly come by herself.

"Aha, mind if I crash here again tonight?" Klaud asked looking around the room.

With that three plates of rice and Chicken balls had been laid out for the three first year first high students.

"Blanche. I've been investigating them too. What have you learned?" Tatsuya asked while he popped a chicken ball into his mouth.

"They're ballsy I'll give them that, they've been brainwashing magicians into suicide attacks to give them a bad name. Now they've got people taking over the Kendo club in the school, Kinoe's the Japanese Branch's half brother and Sayaka's been dragged into their scheme as well." Klaud stated before downing a fork full of Rice. "What about you?"

"I came to a similar conclusion." Tatsuya threw his phone out onto the table where it then produced a holographic layout of the city. "Which is why I cloned her Cell Phone while I was having breakfast with her the other day, and this is where I traced her to this morning." Tatsuya zoomed in one the docks, specifically the warehouse where Blanch had made it's temporary headquarters. "Then there's this." Tatsuya brought up a voice file on the phone and played it.

" _Fellow members of the Anti magic revolution!_ " No one recognized his voice, but it made their skin crawl all the same. " _The time of our deliverance is nigh! In the coming days our allies in First High school will open the path for us to occupy their precious little academy!_ " Tatsuya paused the voice clip.

"So they're planning to take the school hostage?" Klaud noted while she scratched her chin.

"It is possible that they plan to do it during the assembly today, look at where her signal is right now." Tatsuya explained adjusting the map so that it would instead show a real time lookout of the situation. "She's there right now."

"So tomorrow I get to get Blanche and my sisters out of my life?" Klaud smiled sinisterly as she looked at the situation. "My kind of day!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note** : Another Chapter, another lack of Reviews. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 7: Military Applications of Ancient Magic

The various students of First High School filled into the assembly hall where the up coming debate between the '2 Course Protest Group' and the Student council was about to commence. Tatsuya had taken the role of a sentinel on the right side of the stage, Klaud with her 'Gaudy Staff C.A.D.' as several Course 1 students had so bluntly choose to dub it was on the left side of the stage. Like most of his fellow students, Tatsuya didn't see the need for a C.A.D. of that size, but Ancient magicians were infamous for a lack of stream lined efficiency though generally speaking they were vastly superior in everything else. After all, he witnessed first hand the power of that staff not even thirty minuets ago. More important than Klaud however was the audience, a Large number of students were wearing the red, white and green armbands of Blanche. If the situation were any different, he would have clobbered them on pure principal already. As it was though the student council, including his adorable little sister, were trying to negotiate with these people to keep something bad from happening, and that made this important enough to make sure it went smoothly.

"Let the games begin." Klaud muttered as she watched the Student Council President Mayumi Saegusa walked onto stage and stand in front of the microphone.

"We will now begin the Debate between the 2 Courses Protest group and the Student council. As a Start, I will allow my opponent Kinoe Tsukasa to begin the debate by bringing to light the infractions made against the course two students." Mayumi stated before stepping back and rejoining the rest of the student Council with Klaud.

"As a start." Kinoe stepped forward before the microphone. "The treatment that Blooms receive over weeds is clearly preferential..."

"Excuse me, club head." With Mayumi's interruption the attention was once again on her. "But you are aware that referring to the course 1 and 2 students as Blooms and Weeds is a clear violation of the school rules."

"That it is isn't it? And in spite of that, I cannot even walk the halls without being referred to as a WEED!" Kinoe snapped in anger. "A plant, that is considered to be a pest because it sucks up precious nutrients and in the process chokes out and hinders other plants that people actually want to cultivate and grow!" All throughout the assembly hall, various course 2 students bitterly tightened their hands into fists, clearly a great deal of students felt the same as he did. "But by all means, we are not here to state what we all already know." Kinoe stated as he calmed down and readjusted his tie. "As I was saying before I was interrupted. The Treatment that Blooms receive over Weeds is clearly preferential. As a start, by school law only Blooms are allowed to join the student council. Magic focused clubs consisting mostly of Blooms receive the lions share of the yearly budget. Finally, Blooms receive actual proper instruction on magic where as Weeds are merely given access to the reading materials and are expected to teach themselves magic. I can look up magical formula on the internet, if it was that simple we wouldn't even have magical academies!" Taking a second deep breath Kinoe slicked back his hair as he calmed down. "Thank you, that is all."

Clearly, Kinoe had a lot of pent up anger, and he used this assembly to vent that anger.

"To address your concerns." Mayumi once again took the microphone and spoke to the school. "The various clubs are given whatever fraction of the budget that they receive based on how well they perform and what results their clubs generate. For instance, the soft ball team, a non magical club composed mostly of course 2 students, receives a larger portion of the annual budget than the Kenjutsu club, a magic focus club composed mostly of Course 1 students. As for your second concern, the Student council is indeed by school law composed of course 1 students, in spite of the fact that magical predisposition is not a primary skill required to manage a school. I myself could list off a number of names of individuals in the second course who would be excellent additions to the student council." Klaud caught Mayumi shooting both her and Tatsuya a warm knowing look at that last point.

"For your third point, the matter of the second course students receiving proper magical instruction, this is at the core of the 2 courses issue." Taking a deep breath, Mayumi prepared for what she intended to be a long speech. "Although this is not a well known fact, and on the contrary a huge effort has been made to cover up this mistake, but the origins of the two course system can be traced back to two things. The first is a clerical error. Due to a typo on the original form which ordered the first batch of uniforms for the student body, instead of two hundred uniforms with the flower emblem that is the symbol of our school, we instead got 100 uniforms with the emblem and 100 without. The second issue is a lack of staff, simply put, due to various issue's like modern society's massive dependence on magic, and the on going war with the other major super powers, the school was unable to employ enough staff to educate the 200 students at the school. Instead it was intended that during the first year the course one students would receive magical education, then during the second year course 2 students would receive magical education and so on. Only instead the error was discovered, and in order to hide their embarrassment the first magical academy created a cruel lie, and the eight other magical academies that were modeled after this one copied that lie." Various students suddenly started whispering among themselves at the startling revelation. Tatsuya saw Klaud moving, getting into a fighting stance with her staff and choose to follow suit. "So as many of you now realize, the situation we now live in, is not the result of malice or a belief of superiority, but simply a mistake that was never corrected, as are many cruel realities."

Suddenly a crash sound echoed throughout the room as several canisters producing smoke were thrown through the windows. Klaud reacted immediately, before the canisters could even hit the ground she aimed the business end of her staff at them and fired several bolts of freezing air at them solidifying their unpleasant gaseous contents. At once the doors were kicked in and in came several surprised soldiers wearing gas masks and carrying assault rifles. Ill prepared for a assembly hall that was full of conscious students, the group were not ready for the combined assault of both Tatsuya and Klaud. Firstly, Tatsuya fired his multi-variant psion wavelength attack at the soldiers, granting them severe vertigo. Then Klaud produced tiny wings from her ankles and some how used that to jump to the ceiling before bouncing off of it and launching a drop kick on one of the soldiers. However one of the soldiers brought out his orange C.A.D. and hit Klaud with a wave of anti-magic, unexpectedly causing Klaud to poof into the form of Klaud's belt with Card Holster, a single card separated from the rest floated down and landed in the loop formed by the belt.

"The Mirror?" A confused soldier asked reading the card. "What the..." That was the last thing that soldier said before he received a blow to the top of his head that rendered him unconscious.

"Tatsuya." Tatsuya turned around and was met with the sight of Mayumi, Katsuto and Mari. "Is there something you'd like to tell us?" Mayumi asked tapping her foot with a displeased expression on her face.

"Simply put, Both Klaud, Miyuki and I have known about the attack being planned on the school by Blanche for a few days now. In order to try and stop them Klaud went to confront them by herself while leaving the rest of her cards here to cover for her." Tatsuya explained while he fed the Mirror Card some more psions. At once the card resumed Klaud's appearance.

"Thank you Tatsuya, I admit that those Antinite bracelets are rather unpleasant." The Mirror-Klaud stated with a warm smile on her face. "Now that we know the fighting's started perhaps it would be wise to recall the one on the roof." Mirror-Klaud stated pointing at the ceiling. At once a green ball of light floated down from the ceiling and upon touching Mirror-Klaud's hand the light ball turned into another card, the Arrow. "Thanks for the warning Arrow. You too Ice."

"Wow. Ancient magicians are terrifying." Mari stated, prompting Katsuto to silently nod.

"It's not so bad." Mirror put both of the cards in question back into the deck before she continued. "We can be thought of as being similar to your specialized C.A.D.'s but each one of us has our own minds, an artificial intelligence as you people would put it that automatically makes proper adjustments."

"No wonder people are scared of Klaud. What's the situation like outside?" Katsuto stated a look on his face which strongly implied that he wasn't scared in the least bit.

"About thirty men armed with Guns and Antinite and helped by a large number of course two students have invaded the school and are taken entire clubs hostage." Mirror-Klaud explained, before she pulled out the deck of magic Card's and fanned them out. "But these guys can eat them for breakfast! With Tatsuya's or Miyuki's psion count, it would be easy to have one or two of us brought out at a time. But if it was deemed necessary, we were given permission to grant our power to the students to help defend the school."

"Klaud's card's." As if he wanted to test the authenticity of Mirror's duplication power, Katsuto patted her on the head. "I've heard of magic that can create facsimiles or duplicates, but to this degree. If one card is capable of this level of magic, then it makes me wonder what the rest of you can do."

"If you'd like to find out, I already know what we can do, so what I need to know is what can our volunteers do?" Mirror-Klaud stated smiling darkly.

It took the enemy soldiers a few minuets to realize that the team they had sent to take the auditorium had been incapacitated. Fearing the worst they had come prepared with the use of a Tow Missile launcher. One soldier readied the weapon and aimed it at the auditorium. The Missile that was fired from midair, was suddenly viciously struck down by a magical arrow and exploded harmlessly.

"What the heck!?" On the roof of the auditorium Mayumi was armed with a magical bow and glaring down hatefully at those who had invaded her school. "What the heck!?" Suddenly the doors of the auditorium were blown off of it's hinges, and out from inside the auditorium, several students with a mysterious glow in their eyes emerged.

"Students of First High! Cards of Klaud! I will now be giving the orders to repel the invaders of our school!"

"Damnit!" Just as the solider was about to fire again, his entire right arm holding the missile launcher was cut off by Takegawa wielding the sword card.

"Not on my watch!"

Tatsuya used the Time Card to repair the damage to the doors making them as good as new, followed up by using the Lock Card to seal the building with the bulk of the students inside. Those who had exited the building consisted of Erika Chiba, Tatsuya Shiba, Miyuki Shiba, Leonhart Saijou, Katsuto Juumonji, Mari Watanabe, Mayumi Saegusa, Takeaki Kirihawa and of course Mirror-Klaud.

"I will now be giving the orders. Mari, Sleep, incapacitate those from our school!"

Although they were helping the members of Blanche with their terrorist attacks, those people were still from their school, and the chances that they had been forced to help them somehow were still very high. So for the first move in their campaign, Mari, whose magic created a variety of mists using air born gasses and then distributed them in a controlled manner by manipulating the wind, was mixed with the power of the Sleep card, which as the name would imply puts those affected by it to sleep, took down all of those who were from First High.

"Erika, Speed, removed those traitors from my line of sight!"

At Mayumi's second command, Erika who was already rather agile to begin with but was now further enhanced by the speed card, rushed through the growing No Man's Land nimbly picking up the students and dropping them off to safety.

"Katsuto! Shield! Cut off their escape!"

Katsuto of the Jyuumonji clan, the pride of the first laboratory whose specialty was the creation of massively powerful magical barriers, now had his power dramatically enhanced by the card that embodied that very idea, slammed down those immovable unbreakable barriers in the path of the Blanche soldiers who had foolishly walked into their territory to begin with.

"Leo! Power! Finish them off!"

The fearful solider's turned their attention back to the monstrously powerful students and was met face to face with Leo, who used his ridiculously enhanced strength to rip out a huge chunk of the pavement and then threw it onto the terrified soldiers.

"Tatsuya, Miyuki Mirror and all the others! There's a group of them going for the school's archives! Intercept them!"

At once the remaining members of the strike ran towards the school's archives where they intended to finish their enemies off once and for all.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes** : Alrighty then, this chapter exciting action bits, chapter after that exciting action bits with a touch of comedy, and then we get to go to where Klaud grew up. Also there seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding something, so lemme break it down for you: Klaud is a girl, she will remain a girl, she wears the female uniform, I refer to her in the female tense, therefore Klaud is a girl! Now, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 8: Military Applications of Ancient Magic

Down at the docks, Klaud had just been driven to a nondescript warehouse by non other than Sapphire and Inari.

"Ah yes unlucky Thirteen." Sapphire stated smirking knowingly at the thirteen in bold print that was labeled on the wall next to the car. "You'd think that they'd know better."

"Ugh..." Klaud in the mean time was sighing in the back seat.

"What's the matter Klaud? Are you not feeling well?" Inari asked floating in the front seat. "Of sorts. Why do I have to wear this ridiculous thing anyway?" Klaud asked tugging on the pink colored material that made up the costume.

"Because your sisters told you to. Are you forgetting what Madison did to you the last time you refused to pose for one of her outfits?" Inari asked looking through the window at the doors to Blanche's base.

"You couldn't move for a week!" Sapphire stated breaking out into laughter. "We had to blender all your food and feed you with a spoon!"

"Let's just get this over with!" Klaud immediately proceeded to jump out of the car and slammed the door shut.

From head to toe, Klaud was dressed in pink and almost pink white. The jester like costume had large poofy sleeves and pant legs, the use of football type pads had given her a distinctive male outline, while the bells that adorned her skirt and her hat had seemingly destroyed whatever stealth advantage she had. Finally though Klaud's one saving grace from all of this embarrassment was the protective Clown mask that adorned her face hid her true identity.

"I guess it's time that we got dressed too."

Suddenly two sets of huge Golden wings emerged from both Inari's and Sapphire's backs and wrapped around their bodies. The make shift wing cocoons burst open, gone was the floating stuffed toy, what sat before Klaud right now was a huge white lion with black Tiger stripes, golden armor around the ankles, head, leg and chest area adorned with blue sapphires large elegant golden wings. With exception to her wings that matched Inari's, Sapphire did not undergo a physical change so much as a aesthetic one, she was now wearing a large white kimono with a golden floral pattern and was wearing golden sapphire earrings and bracelets.

"No fair!" Although they couldn't tell because of the mask, Klaud was pouting with a slight blush on her face at her two familiars. "Why do you two get to look cool when I look like Madison's personal court jester!?"

"How you look might by decided by your sister but how we look is decided by you as our master and creator. If you are dissatisfied by it then you should change it." Inari explained with a voice of cool indifference.

"Ara, Ara, Klaud you look so cute in that outfit it just makes me want to squeeze you!" Sapphire stated giggling with her hand on her chin.

"Let's just get this over with you two!" Klaud stated spinning around in a huff and walking off.

Tatsuya, Miyuki and Mirror-Klaud entered the school's archives center and took a look around their surroundings. Tatsuya knew from reading the Eidos that Blanche and several of their academy co-conspirators had already been through here and were now well on their way to the school's archives.

"The Lock Card isn't going to cut it here Mirror." Tatsuya stated getting up from reading the Eidos on the ground.

"That's Okay. That guy can only clamp down one building at a time anyway." On that note, Mirror Klaud handed Tatsuya 'the Maze' Card. "I don't need to tell you what this one does right?"

Tatsuya walked over to one of the walls and placed the Maze against it as he sunk Psions into the card. Suddenly the entire building shook as it was suddenly stretched and twisted and contorted in various ways into a huge winding maze. Tatsuya was admittedly stunned as he took in his surroundings. At first he thought some type of matter manipulation was at fault, but he saw a painting that was hanging on the wall to the side had been twisted and stretched into a unrecognizable state and was now the walls of a hall way.

"This card. It manipulates space doesn't it?" Tatsuya asked examining the environment with his elemental eyes.

"Very good little Shiba boy." Mirror-Klaud stated in a overly condescending manner while she patted Tatsuya on his head. "Now if they're planning to hack into the computer systems, then this guy is gonna be enough to give them a lot of trouble." Mirror-Klaud explained handing 'the Lightning' card to Miyuki.

* * *

From the beginning Sayaka had a overwhelming feeling of dread about these people. Protesting student rights and equality was one thing, but this.

"Whoa awesome! Who knew these guys were hiding something like this here!? Quickly! Grab me that storage cube."

This had absolutely nothing to do with student rights, something else was going on here. Suddenly the lighting started to go haywire as the lights started to fade in and out.

"They're trying to cut the power to the building to stop us? How naive do they think we are, for starters this building..."

The technicians were interrupted by their work station exploding, emerging from that destroyed work station was a huge electrical tiger. The Stunned Blanche members were thrown into the hallway via several lightning bolts slamming them against the back wall. The trio was stunned by two changes in their environment occurring, the first was that the door they were just sent flying out of just shrunk to a size ideal for a rat, and the second was the hallway they were standing in suddenly expanding, separating Sayaka from comrades who were now sent down a newly formed careening pitfall and were rendered unconscious at the bottom.

"Just what kind of crazy messed up building is this place?" Sayaka asked full of shocked surprise.

"It's not normally like this." Sayaka spun around upon hearing that strange voice and saw Erika Chiba. "Klaud left her spirits at the campus to rampage against you guys. I guess she really is pretty terrifying."

"Erika?" Sayaka asked her sword shaking in her hands as she stared at Erika who had a foreign aura surrounding her and a distorted voice to match. "What's with that weird aura surrounding your body?"

"Oh thanks I forgot about that." Suddenly the aura gathered in Erika's hand and what emerged from it was a blue cat with a red ruby in it's forehead. "Thanks for the help there Speed, but if you don't mind I'd like to handle this one on my own." The cat like creature nodded it's head and ran off, Erika pulled out a silver colored baton and aimed it at Sayaka. "So how about it eh miss second place kendo champion? You like the idea of a real sword fight? Then Bring it!"

In that moment what Sayaka had been holding in for the past year finally came out, her doubts, her confusion, her hatred, her self pity, her worthlessness while carrying all of these feelings she charged at Erika swinging her blade. First the two of them clashed a few times swinging their swords. Erika took advantage of the distraction by trying to stomp on Sayaka's leg, only for Sayaka to move it out of the way and try to counter stomp on Erika's leg. Not only did Erika dodge the attack but she fluidly moved the dodge into a counter by slamming her foot upwards into Sayaka's midsection breaking at least one rib and cracking more, followed by jabbing her weapon into Sayaka's throat. Sayaka blocked the attack with her blade, just as Erika had calculated. At once Erika grabbed hold and twisted Sayaka's arm into breaking position before slamming her weapon down on top of it breaking her arm in the process. Erika ended the short duel slamming her weapon across Sayaka's face with enough force to break her jaw.

* * *

Once the incident had been resolved the various Blanche terrorists had been handed over to the Japanese government and the students that were put under their control into the custody of the First Academy.

"It's just that... I felt so tired of being treated like I was worthless. I just wanted to feel like I mattered again." Sayaka was sitting on a bed in the school's hospital wing, crying her eyes out, having just had MRI completed on her and was already undergoing low level healing magic to take care of her injuries she was now surrounded by the big three Katsuto, Mayumi and Mari and their lieutenants Takeaki, Azusa and Tatsuya. "But this! I didn't know they were going to do this! If I had I would've..." Mayumi sat down on the bed and held Sayaka in her arms as she cried. "I was trying so hard! But when the head of the Public Morals Committee who was advocating equality between the course one and two students put me down too."

"Oi Oi I did no such thing!" Mari stated a hint of irritation in her voice.

"But you said that I wasn't a worthy opponent when I challenged you last year!" Sayaka stated her eyes wide with shock.

"No I said that I wasn't the worthy opponent. You who scored the second place spot in that Kendo tournament vs me who didn't even make it to the semi finals in that same tournament." Sayaka's jaw dropped as Mari continued. "'My magic has nothing to do with sword skills, and you clearly out rank me in terms of sword skills. You'd only be wasting your time.' Those were my exact words. Dammit Sayaka that was over a year ago how long have you been letting these people mess around with your head?"

At Mari's scolding Sayaka broke down into tears again.

"Dammit!" Takeaki grabbed hold of Tatsuya by his collar and began violently shaking him. "Where's these guys's base Tatsuya!? I know you know! Tell me!"

Completely ignoring the freaking out Takeaki, Miyuki tugged on Tatsuya's coat while at the same time looking out the window her mouth a gap. Pushing Takeaki off of him, Tatsuya looked out the window, and with his signature poker face pointed outside.

"Does that Answer your question Takeaki?" Tatsuya stated looking back at Takeaki.

Takeaki looked out the window and his jaw hit the floor in shock when he saw a gigantic tornado carrying warehouse thirteen at it's top. The first thing that Tatsuya noticed was the amount of damage that it was doing. Or more accurately that it wasn't. Aside from the Warehouse, the tornado had yet to pick up a single object during it's trek across the city. No matter how you looked at it, the tornado had clearly come here from the docks where it had picked up that building. And in spite of that, the entire city was undisturbed, bar the exception of the large number of people who had gathered together to witness the bizarre phenomena, as if the tornado had intelligently decided to pick up that building and only that building.

"It's Klaud's doing. Right?" Tatsuya asked looking intently at the storm that had appeared out of thin air.

"You have to ask? Well to be more precise it's windy's handy work but Jeez Tatsuya I thought you were smart!" Mirror-Klaud immediately went for the door, bending backwards to look at Tatsuya and the others through the door. "You guys coming!?"

Outside the Tornado was doing it's best impression of a child who was trying to shake the last cookie out of a box having bent over at the middle to shake out the perpetrators inside of the ware house. Klaud flew out of the warehouse riding on the back of Inari and went to the abandoned part of town where she lived, the Perpetrators rode the tornado down suffering severe spinal injury and multiple fractures in the process. After being finished with the building, the Tornado unceremoniously tossed it a great distance causing it to land smack dab in the middle of the harbor.

"Ah what just happened?" Erika asked looking at the impressive feat of magical power.

* * *

Later that evening Klaud was sitting in her living room, having already changed out of that outfit with instructions to burn it and into her dramatically less pink pajamas. Klaud had a bag of ice to her head, two wads of Kleenex up her nose that was dripping blood, and a glass of the strongest drink she had on hand, fermented cranberry juice. Clearly her feat of extremely high level magic had a worst effect on her than she thought.

"Now now Klaud we did warn you about taking such reckless action before haven't we?" Sapphire stated in a overly condescending manner, cutely patting Klaud's head.

"If you hadn't given all of your other card's to Tatsuya to use then you wouldn't have had to resort to such extreme actions and settle the matter in a much more quiet manner." Inari stated in a scolding tone of voice.

"Screw quiet!" Klaud snapped while she knocked back her drink. "I'm done running and I'm done hiding! Running and hiding is how I've been bullied by my sisters all my life! If I want to fix my problems, then I have to grab them by the horns and fix them!"

"Tough words!" A sudden Chill went up Klaud's spine as she turned her head around and saw her sisters standing behind her. "After pulling a Ballsy tasteless stunt like that I wonder if our timid useless little sister has finally grown up yet." Maylin stated leaning against the doorway.

"Urgh!" Klaud let out a defeated groan and curled up into a ball on the couch. "I'm so not in the mood for dealing with you people!"

"Oh Klaud!" Instantly, Madison closed the distance between them and pulled Klaud into a hug. One in which Madison was intentionally fondling Klaud's chest. "We're so proud of you!"

"What's this about leaving her cards with someone else?" Maylin asked directing a vicious glare towards Inari.

"With the exception of these six." Inari started to explain while he gestured to six cards which had been laid out on the table: Fiery, Windy, Watery, Earthy, Dark and Light. "Klaud had given her entire supply of cards to Tatsuya to help defend the school during Blanche's little rampage."

"You little irresponsible brat!" While Madison was still continuously fondling her, Maylin picked Klaud up by her ear as well. "Do you even comprehend the recklessness of what you just did right now?"

"OW! OW! I didn't given to Tatsuya I left them with Mirror! Now can one of you let me go already!?" Klaud yelled prompting Maylin to drop her. "I instructed her to work with Tatsuya to defend the school! My link with Mirror is still active, I can tell that she's on her way here right now with the rest of my cards!" At that the sound of the door swung open and out of nowhere Erika leaped through the door and glomped Klaud.

"Way to go Klaud!" Erika shouted while she straddled Klaud blowing on a streamer and wearing a party hat.

"Get off of me Erika!" Klaud shouted trying to pushing Erika off of her.

"My, my, my." Hearing a familiar giggling voice Klaud saw Mayumi, Katsuto and Mari standing in the doorway of her apartment. "The three Pillars of the Ancient Magical Community, I think that we have some things to talk about."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Yah sorry, I guess that monologue at the beginning ate a lot of the chapter, Maybe I should go back and paragraph that. But Klaud is a girl!

Duked: Don't worry about that, I plan to settle that matter soon enough.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note** : Hello People, now we answer the mystery behind what Klaud was doing at the floating warehouse.

* * *

Chapter 9: The Consequences of Advance Magical Formula

Klaud had been put into a dangerous position, to one side was the three pillars of First Magic Academy Mayumi Saegusa, Mari Watanabe and Katsuho Jyuumonji, to her other was her three sisters, Maylin, Madison and Rebecca Kinomoto, and right on top of her like a lover was Erika who clearly came here looking for a party.

"Okay you three I understand..." Klaud stated pointing at her sisters who were sitting on the couch. "And you three I understand..." Klaud stated pointing at her classmates from school. "But what is she doing here!?" Klaud asked as she pushed Erika off of herself.

"She was the only one who knows where you live. This place isn't too far away from her families dojo, and she saw you guys drive by enough times to figure out what was going on. Honestly Klaud what possessed you to live in this miserable broken down neighborhood?" Mayumi asked her features twisted in disgust.

"Cheap rent, hydro and electric. Plus no one would think to look for me here so that I don't get SEVEN PEOPLE INVADING MY PERSONAL SPACE ALL AT ONCE!"

* * *

Point of interest, it would seem that the building was originally a bed and breakfast, so the group moved their conversation to the far more spacious dining area. Tatsuya and Takeaki stood guard at either side of the room while Azusa and Sapphire whipped together some supper for them.

"That was a pretty impressive stunt you pulled missy." Mayumi stated placing Klaud's card deck and belt holster on the table. "If someone told me yesterday that the worlds most selective tornado was going to pick up a building, empty it's contents on our front lawn and then toss across town into the ocean, I would've had them committed."

"Yes well..." As if to express her dissatisfaction Maylin grabbed Klaud by her cheek and yanked on it. "It would be infinitely more impressive if she had not nearly killed herself in the process now wouldn't it Klaud?"

"Ow! Ow! OW!"

"What do you mean? Did my subordinate do something reckless?" Mari asked leveling a glare at Klaud.

"What do you call conjuring up a tornado and hauling a building across town?" Rebecca asked as she took a glass of cranberry juice from Azusa.

"You know what I mean, what did Klaud do to herself?" Mari asked a second time, her attention now on Rebecca.

"Why don't we let Klaud explain herself hmm?" Madison stated in a overly cute tone of voice as she patted Klaud on her head, that was completely opposite to the overwhelming feeling of danger she was giving off.

* * *

 _Outside of the warehouse leading into Blanche's base of operations, Inari started the assault off by firing a solar beam at the front door blasting a huge hole into the front of the building._

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait...!" Klaud directed her attention to Mayumi who had interrupted her story. "Inari, as in the little talking toy that _Azusa_ nearly popped the head off of?" Mayumi asked emphasizing her point by pointing at a old cookie jar that Inari was using as his personal quarters.

"He's a lot tougher than he looks." Klaud explained defensively.

"I find that had to believe." Mari stated a serious disbelieving look on her face.

"Fine you want proof? Inari!" At once the toy like creature flew out of the jar and a bright glow emanated all throughout the room as Inari's golden wings appeared and wrapped around his small form, spreading about a moment later to reveal a griffin like creature.

"Okay I believe it!" Mari stated as she narrowly dodged one of Inari's wings. Inari's suddenly transformation had left everyone speechless, even the normally stoic Tatsuya just stared in wide eyed disbelief.

"No more questions? G-"

"How is this possible?" Katsuho asked wide eyed in surprise.

"Allow me to put this in terms you can understand to keep from frying your puny little minds." Rebecca stated in a overly condescending tone of voice. "Inari here, is the end result of slamming Pushions and Psions together to form a type of pseudo magical matter, Magi-matter if you would, able to accurately recreate any type of material, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon and create a type of living material out of magical energy. Of course the process is much different from actual matter, for starters instead of creating new magi-matter Inari here is merely expanding the distance between the pushions and psions in his molecules to make himself bigger, as well as making him lighter than he looks so that he can fly without issue, then altering his outer layer of magi-matter so instead of resembling a oversize stuffed toy..."

"He turns into this handsome looking guy!" Mayumi stated patting the griffin like familiar on his head.

"In that case, he's like my clan's barrier magic, only a lot more advanced. Ancient magicians really are terrifying." Katsuho stated looking the Griffin like Inari up and down.

"Whoa cool!" Azusa rushed out of the Kitchenette and jumped onto Inari's back hugging him around his neck.

"So that angel like creature we saw fly out of the warehouse before it crashed." Katsuho stated eyeing Sapphire suspiciously.

"Yah, that was me." As if to confirm their suspicions two huge golden wings emerged from Sapphire's back before she gave a short curtsy to the three leaders of the student community. "So now that we are all caught up can I finish the story?" Klaud asked eyeing the group of students irately.

* * *

 _Inari and Sapphire were the first ones through, a group of Blanche soldiers fired at them with guns only by be met with a thick wall of diamond crystals by Sapphire. Not done yet, Sapphire shot another crystal into the middle of the enemy group and Inari blasted it with another solar ray blinding the group. The last thing the soldiers saw before they lost consciousness is Klaud slamming her staff into their faces._

* * *

"These two shoot Diamonds and Solar energy at people?" Mayumi asked looking back and forth between Sapphire and Inari.

"Are you going to be like this all evening Mayumi?" Klaud asked getting a little bit annoyed.

"Sorry."

* * *

 _Continuing on as they went deeper into the facility, the trio was met with another group of Blanche thugs. This time however they were met by their leader. This man was far from the basic rank and file of the organization, wearing a nice white suit with a purple scarf draped around his shoulders and oval shaped glasses that contrasted with his neatly cut white hair._

 _"Hello there young lady, what business does the royal court jester have with our organization today?"_

* * *

"Wait Court jester?" Klaud glared a evil look at Mari. "Why were you dressed up like a clown?"

"...poser ther..." Klaud mumbled suddenly uncomfortable.

"What?" Mari replied not understanding the question.

"IT'S EXPOSURE THERAPY ALRIGHT! I'M SCARED OF CLOWNS MARI! I GET NIGHTMARES FOR WEEKS EVERY TIME MAYLIN MAKES ME WEAR THAT STUPID COSTUME!" Klaud suddenly slammed her head into the table and started crying.

"Oh... sorry about that. Any time you want to continue." Mari replied now wishing to change the subject.

* * *

 _"Your organization is causing me a fair amount of trouble. So I thought I'd burn it to the ground." Klaud stated in a even tone of voice, sizing up her opponents._

 _"Oh that's not how you talk to strangers. Let's try that again. I am known as Hajime Tsukasa." Suddenly, in a over dramatic manner, Hajime threw his glasses into the air and slicked his hair back producing a flash of pinkish light from his eyes. "Now instead of turning us to ash, why don't you join our cause?"_

 _"Sure, sounds like fun right guys?" Klaud asked in a dull tone of voice._

 _"Sure." Sapphire replied normally._

 _"Grr." Inari growled in compliance._

 _"Good. Now let's step into my office so that we can properly discuss your... companions here." The group walked the entire length of the building before the soldiers finally turned their backs on them. To be fair they were assaulted by an angel, a griffin and a clown so this situation would be weird for anyone._

 _"Alright guys! Just like we all planned in the car!"_

 _But once they had the group struck, they struck hard. Another reason for the lengthy wait was that with being unable to use her staff Klaud had to sink a lot of psions into her fiery card to keep it from going berserk cooking all of them. But once she had her doing what she needed, the sound of gun powder going off inside of the Blanche soldiers guns was like a rallying call to arms. Inari started off the combo attack by pouncing on Hajime and using his oversize wings to throw the rest of his subordinates against a wall, and pinned there by Sapphire's crystal shards._

 _"But my Evil Eye! You should have been under my complete control!" Hajime desperately pleaded while Inari put his jaws around his throat._

 _"That thing you did when you threw your glasses into air? Sorry to disappoint you but with these crystal cut lenses in my mask I couldn't even tell you had done magic let alone be brainwashed by it. And my companions here are too loyal to be affected by something so cheap either." Klaud explained while she tapped the side of her mask with her finger._

* * *

"Wait a second you put Crystal Cut lenses into your mask?" Mayumi asked confused once more.

"No Mayumi, Madison did." Klaud replied anger mixing in with her annoyance.

"Well I heard that naughty Hajime likes to use the Evil Eye on people to place them under his control, so Rebecca researched a way to counteract it. And she figured out that cheap trick only works on people who can see magical power, and not very well I might add. So I just rendered Klaud into someone who can't see magical particles." Madison stated resting her chin on her hand.

"It's fine, as long as I have my cards and my familiars I don't need to see what my enemies are doing. Now as I was saying..."

* * *

 _"Damn magician! How much do you have to look down on us!?" Hajime snapped, fearfully snapping shut when he heard Inari growl at him._

 _"We're looking down on you? Wasn't it 'Normal Humans' who selfishly abducted anyone who was deemed to have even the slightest amount of magical power, experimented on them, and hacked off large portions of their flesh for the singular purpose of using their genetic material to mass produce soldiers and slaves? Yes those in magical fields do get paid more as a whole than those in regular fields, in compensation for the fact that we are forced to work much longer hours under dramatically more dangerous circumstances until we die from a hemorrhage from over using our magical power. Furthermore, those who work in those fields get them by dedicating the bulk of their life to developing their magical ability, and those who fail to get those jobs instead wind up on the street and left to their own devices, usually to be picked up by someone just like you. After all, if everyone could just get normal jobs instead of unreasonably being stuck into the magical business where they have to work until their brains melt then they would wouldn't they? So enjoy your life as a 'normal' while you can, because their's a deep dark hole out in the middle of no where they take people just like you and scrap the brains out of your head through the nose with your name on it!" Whistling while she walked away, Hajime would do something that he would come to deeply regret for the rest of his life._

 _"Damn you you cowardly magician!" Hajime grabbed a hold of the Antinite C.A.D. on his wrist and sent it's waves outwards, dealing huge pain to Inari and forcing him off of him._

 _"INARI!" The Effects of the Antinite wave was having a clearly negative effect on Inari, who had returned to his stuffed toy form and was now unconscious._

* * *

"But he's fine now isn't he?" Mayumi asked as she began checking Inari for injuries.

"Yes but she didn't know that at the time Mayumi. All she knew was that a being made mostly of magic got hit by a anti-magic wave and then I wasn't moving." Inari replied licking his paw and using it to wipe his own head like a cat.

"As I was saying!"

* * *

 _Smoke started to appear from around Klaud's body as a smell not unlike frying bacon started to fill the room._

 _"Damn you!"_

 _"St-Stay back I'm warning you!" Hajime whipped around and fire the next anti-magic wave at Klaud, the worst he did was just make her staff shrink down into a key._

 _"So I don't have my staff. What about you?" If Hajime did possess a fire arm on him then it would have been fried by Fiery. If he had a knife it would have eaten through his pants when Fiery super heated it._

 _"So we're both defenseless now eh magician brat! You don't have your magic and I don't have my weapons! Now what are you going to-Gak!?"_

 _"Who said I was defenseless?" With that line Klaud judo threw Hajime to the ground and cruelly crushed his last line of defense, the antinite bracelet with his wrist still attached underneath her heel. "GYAK!"_

 _"This should teach you to not look down on magicians." Klaud pulled out her key and had it extend into it's full size again before she started to twirl it. Then she pulled out Windy and had it float in the air as she started her magical chant. "O great key that hides the power of light, I command thee to draw upon Ancient power, both near and far, to come to my side, discard your previous form and release your true power!" Klaud slammed the sun staff into the Windy card. Sapphire wisely choose to retreive Inari's unconscious form and grab hold of one of the walls. "Windy! I command you to bring this god forsaken building to the First Academy! And nothing else!" Now Klaud's body was flushed red hot, a bright red pattern resembling a cross between tree roots and spider webs were appearing all over her body, though no one else could tell through her costume. The building shook and rapidly spun around like a deranged carnival ride as it was ripped from the ground and carried across the city by a tornado. Before she knew it they were over the first academy. "Now dump this garbage on the lawn and get rid of the building!" At once the building turn sideways and shook out the contents, while Windy got everyone to safety Klaud fell unconscious unable to handle the burning pain any longer and fell out as well._

 _"KLAUD!" Sapphire rushed after Klaud as she fell through the building, she slapped Inari awake and threw him after Klaud._

 _"Jeesus!" Inari turned into his griffin form as he left the building and caught Klaud._

* * *

"Wait a sec. Are you telling us that Klaud over heated?" Mayumi asked in shocked surprise.

"Klaud has the ability to suck up energy from light, but if she asks too much of the cards then her magic circuits begin to over heat and boils her body from the inside out!" Maylin explained angrily as she yanked on Klaud's cheeks with renewed vigor.

"If the two of us hadn't cooled her off in time who knows what would have happened to her." Inari explained while Azusa was gasping in surprise while hanging on his neck.

"Which reminds me, you guys owe the YMCA a new sun roof, and a fire extinguisher." Sapphire explained while patting Klaud on her head rather happily.

"A situation that could have been entirely avoided if she hadn't given away all of her cards and used the one that was actually designed for heavy lifting!" Now Maylin was nearly yanking Klaud's cheek off, so Madison made her stop.

"So did you really burn yourself fighting those guys?" Azusa asked concern clear on her features.

"I have some bio-oil I was planning to put on them." In response the embarrassed Klaud pulled up on her pajama top exposing the network of burns on her torso. "I was planning to apply some when my skin wasn't so sensitive."

"Which reminds me." Rebecca hit the speed dial on her phone and handed it over to Klaud. "Be sure to tell her that this was all your fault!" Klaud nervously took the phone and held it up to her ear.

"Hey Mom... Yah that was me... No no I'm okay. I just burned myself again... Uh do I got a few days off from school?" Mayumi was giving Klaud a look of approval with a double thumbs up. Guess she figured she earned a few days off from school. "Yah sure I can come visit yah for a bit. The school's a mess right now so I gotta pick up some school work first. Uh have I made any friends?"

Well there was Tatsuya, but she got a sinking feeling that bringing him into her home was a bad move, there was also Miyuki, but she got the same feeling. However Katsuho was holding his hand out to her expectantly.

"Uh here's one, I think he wants to talk to you." Klaud stated passing the Phone over to Katsuho.

"Hello Ma'am I'm..."

"The Jyuumonji clan's little pet tank yes I'm aware..." The overly sweet voice on the other end of the phone replied. "I assume that you want to discuss a threat to Klaud's life by your colleagues in the Ten Great Clans? Understand something boy, right now the only one threatening my daughter is you. Meaning that if they act, Mr. Future head of the Ten Master Clans, I will hold you personally accountable. And I am where Klaud got her temper. Now, would you kindly give me back to my daughter?" The voice on the other side stated bluntly.

At once Katsuho handed the phone over to Klaud who took it to continue to chat with the woman on the other side. Although he would never admit it, but that woman scared him.

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so, and my apologies for missing your last review.

Enigma95: No politics, as you can see for yourself.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note** : Well, ten chapters in and we're only now starting to get a good hard look at Klaud's past, So welcome to her childhood home ladies and gents! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 10: The Relation of Ancient and Modern Magic

Klaud was laying down in Tatsuya's basement laboratory on his examination table in her one piece bathing suit. Tatsuya was doing a full body scan of her that he normally reserved for fine tuning C.A.D.'s, usually either one of his own or his sister Miyuki's. In this case however he had alternate motives, a full body examination of Klaud and the unique aspects of her Physiology. He was making a few notable discoveries about her along the way.

"High Magical tolerance, but low Calculation field and low Psion count. She's the opposite of us." Tatsuya took a closer look at the test results and changed his conclusion. "No her psion count isn't low at all, on the contrary it's pretty high, but it's occupied, being constantly drained by something. The cards perhaps?"

"So basically, Klaud is the controller, and the ones that do all the casting are the cards, so what's the power source?" Miyuki stated as she examined some of Klaud's cards as well.

"I looked at the magic formula's in those things too, they're efficient, concentrated, sophisticated." Tatsuya stated, legitimate excitement in his voice.

"You sound pretty excited brother." Miyuki stated, just a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"Even if they are just knock off's of the original, this Clow Reed was terrifying in his day. I've even seen ways of improving upon my own formula's from these things. Then there's this." Tatsuya picked up Klaud's key and examined it through his elemental eyes. "'I call upon the power of the Key that seals the light, drawing upon ancient power both near and far.' It sounds like some type of Magical Solar generator the way that it soaks up energy, and feeds it to Klaud who in turn gives it to the cards."

"So the staff's the power source, the cards are the magic formula's and Klaud's the one who binds them together." Miyuki stated smacking her fist into her hand.

"What seriously? Is that what all of this is about? I could have told you guys that!" Klaud stated as she suddenly sat straight up and glared at Tatsuya. "Did I not mention the part where I have to go get ready to head home today!?"

"Yes and I'm sure your mother would greatly appreciate it if we could solve that annoying over heating problem before you got back home." Tatsuya countered countering Klaud's glare with his own. "Simply put, I think that your main problem here is your staff and Cards. Your body is being made to channel a huge amount of magical energy, and it runs the risks of frying your entire nervous system when you over tax yourself."

"I knew that too." Klaud got off of the table and grabbed a hot dog shaped Duffel bag she had next to the table that was full of her stuff. "So unless you guys know something I don't."

"Do you at least want your C.A.D.'s tuned?" Tatsuya asked scratching his chin as he looked at the computer screen in front of him.

"What are you talking about? I don't have any C.A.D.'s!" Klaud stated a look of clear confusion on her features.

"Tell that to these." Tatsuya pointed to various points on a full body x-ray of Klaud, her Elbows, her knees, and in more than a few cases various plates on her bones.

"Are those...?"

"C.A.D.'s? Yes, yes they are. Granted how they got there and what they're doing there is beyond me." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin in thought.

"Ugh! Rebecca!" Klaud groaned face palming.

"You think she did this?" Miyuki asked legitimate concern on her features.

"Well she was the one to put me back together whenever Maylin nearly killed me. Then she'd drop me a bill in the quadruple digits and sent me on a ten month long fishing expedition to pay off my debt." Klaud stated a vicious glare in her eyes.

"How old were you when this happened?" Miyuki asked fear on her face.

"Ten." Klaud stated in a depressed tone while she went into the changing room.

"Tatsuya, I think spending an extended period of time with those three is hazardous to her health." Miyuki whispered into Tatsuya's ear, prompting him to nod his head.

Rather than her casual wear or her school uniform Klaud was currently getting dressed in a leather flight suit, the kind typically used by a fighter pilot, complete with the bomber jacket and the leather helmet with goggles. But rather than a jet, Klaud was walking towards Inari who had a specialized saddle on his back as well as Sapphire who had packed a few more bags.

"You're late." Inari explained putting his book away into his saddle pouch.

"Blame these two." Klaud stated thumbing Tatsuya and Miyuki who were walking behind her. "Thanks to them I spent the whole morning being poked and prodded like a guinea pig!"

"She provided valuable information about Magician biology, and various improvements to our pre-existing Magical technology, thanks to her cards." Tatsuya explained browsing the information that he compiled on his personal secretary.

"Of course she does, she's not a genetically engineered slave like the rest of you." Inari stated in a harsh tone of voice.

Ignoring that biting remark Klaud climbed aboard Inari's back, first she used the illusion card on Inari, this way anyone who looked up at the sky at them would only see what you'd expect from looking up in the sky, clouds, secondly she used the speed card to dramatically enhance Inari's speed, causing him to take off through the air like a fighter plane carrying Klaud on his back.

"How long until we're home Inari?" Klaud asked as she secured her harness to the saddle via a clip on a steel cable.

"Four hours." Inari replied keeping his focus on where he was going.

"Alright then." Klaud took out the Sleep Card from her holster and used it on herself. "I'll just take a nap and wake up when I'm home." Yawning, Klaud then fell asleep on Inari's back.

* * *

It was a bit before Klaud and Inari had arrived at the Kinomoto Mansion. Although deep in the countryside it none the less gave off a supreme feeling of luxury at three stories tall and a mile long. The mansion was cornered on either side by either a forest filled with magical looking plants, a fence that was containing a group of Griffins not unlike Inari and a large town full of people going about their business. The pair of Inari with Klaud on his back and Sapphire who was carrying the group's luggage landed front of the Mansion where they were greeted by a white haired butler with a stern look on his face.

"Young mistress Klaud. Inari..." Suddenly Sapphire tackled the white haired man around his waist.

"Boo. Yue how cruel of you, not even greeting your own little sister!" Sapphire cried, prompting Yue to pat her on the shoulder, trying to get her off of him.

"It's only proper that I greet the young mistress first Sapphire. You interrupted me before I could get to you." Yue explained calmly holding his 'sister' to his face.

"That's bull and you know it Yue! Klaud's asleep!" Sapphire stated pointing at Klaud who was sound asleep on Inari's back.

"So she is. Inari. Could you bring her into the living room for me?" On that note, Yue led the trio through the house and arrived at a living room. There, a woman who looked like a older version of Klaud was dressed in a elegant kimono and was sitting on a couch reading a book.

"Sakura." The woman in question looked up from her book and looked over at Yue. "Young Mistress Klaud has returned." Yue stepped out of the way of Inari, who walked into the room carrying Klaud on his back, still asleep. "She does not seem to travel well as usual. Shall we awaken her?"

"That won't be necessary Yue." Sakura walked over and un-clipped Klaud from the saddle and pulled her helmet off. "Hello Klaud my beautiful daughter." Sakura kissed the sleeping Klaud on her forehead and picked her up in her arms before walking back over to the couch.

"Before you sit back down Mistress. Mr. Retsu Kudou has requested an audience with you. Again."

"Inform him that I am spending the day with my lovely daughter whom I have not seen in a month." Sakura replied back continuing on to the couch that she was sitting on earlier.

"He's already aware. She is who he wants to talk about." Yue replied, a few of his knuckles audibly cracking.

"Bring him in here." Sakura said with a sigh. Sakura sat down on the couch and put Klaud's head on her lap, petting it the same way one would pet a cat. She could just stay like this forever, just her and her beloved daughter.

"'A young girl who appeared on the battle field like a ghost dressed as a clown.'" He could remember it clearly, that ridiculous outfit that horrendously clashed with the background of a burning battlefield. "'As if to deliberately laugh at the carnage she caused on all four sides of the conflict.'" How she used a bow to fire a single enchanted fire tipped arrow high into the sky, and how seconds later a storm of fire balls rained down from the sky and indiscriminately turned all the participants into ashes. "So this is Gelos."

Sakura shot her guest a displeased scowl as he walked around the room and made his way to the seat across from Sakura. He was elderly man, as made evident by his white hair, wrinkled face and choice of a cane for a fashion accessory. His overly pale features were made even more evident by the all black suit he was wearing.

"My my Retsu, is your age finally catching up to you? You've already forgotten that my daughter's name is Klaud." Even though Sakura said that with a amused playful tone, it was a dangerous one, and amusement was clearly not what was in Sakura's eyes right now.

"You're one to talk." Retsu replied accusingly directing the point of his cane to Sakura.

"More to the point. You make my daughter sound like some type of terrifying monster." Sakura stated carrying the same dangerous, amused tone of voice.

"Your daughter is terrifying, make no mistake about that Sakura." Retsu stated pulling out a folder featuring a entire building that had been ripped out of the ground by a tornado and carried across a city before being tossed into the ocean. "Tell me, has her latest batch of scars healed yet?"

"I don't know." Curious Sakura peaked underneath Klaud's flight suit and indeed saw the tree root like pattern of burn scars underneath Klaud's clothes. "Hmm. She must still be feeling sensitive."

"She's right to you know, it must have felt like every fiber of her being was set on fire all at the same time." Retsu explained packing up the folder and stashing it inside of his blazer. "Your daughter's special you know that right?"

"Of course I know that she's special! I raised her!" Sakura snapped, if her daughter wasn't here right now the things that she would do to this man.

"She's also dangerous. You need to reign her in before she hurts herself or someone else." Retsu stated, although it was hard to notice without being able to see his eyes and his face wrinkled, he was afraid, he was afraid of the sixteen year old girl who was sleeping peacefully on her mother's lap like a child.

"My daughter was raised to believe in peace. Aside from that I gave her one very important set of instructions. 'Live your life how you see fit, the world belongs to you now, never let anyone tell you otherwise.'" Sakura stated, smiling down at Klaud while she patted her sleeping head.

"Rather than restraining her, it sounds more like you're encouraging her to go crazy. Even after you recall what happened in Dahan." For a few good solid couple of minuets, Sakura glared at Retsu not even one tiny trace of the amusement that had gripped her earlier present.

"I will never forget what happened in Dahan. But she will never remember. Not so long as you want to live that is." Placing Klaud's head on the couch Sakura regained her happy look. "Let's go outside shall we? I imagine you want to see the Griffins, or perhaps you'd like to do some shopping in the town? Or maybe you'd like to stay here and tell me about how dangerous you think my daughter is?" In that instant, every window in the mansion shattered.

Retsu and Sakura walked outside towards the fence where a group of Griffins were resting. Sakura had taken to petting one, which Retsu noted had managed to calm her down dramatically.

"Sakura..."

"No you may not have Klaud." Sakura stated, having read what Retsu was going to say before he said it. "Is it not enough already that Maylin Volunteered to fight your battles for you? Or Rebecca chooses to manufacture your tools of death for you?" The woman who would defend her daughter to the death shot Retsu a death glare. "I raised Klaud specifically so that she would not be affected by the hatred that you and I have bred in this world. After all, she is going to be the one who is going to change this world."

"And if someone who is not me tries to take her? Having allies when your fighting a army is rather nice." Retsu asked cocking a single brow at Sakura.

"My my, you've already forgotten hmm? I would've assumed that you had at the very least passed by the field on your way inside of town." Sakura stated, laughing slightly as if Retsu's statement were a joke.

"Mistress Sakura." Sakura turned around to face Yue who was standing next to Sakura who was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Young Mistress Klaud has awoken."

"Which also means that your stay has expired Retsu." Sakura stated clapping her hands together. "Yue. Would you mind escorting Retsu outside?"

"It would be a pleasure madam." With that Retsu began following Yue back to the town, but before he left he turned around to face Klaud.

"Ah. Hello Klaud, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Retsu stated holding out his hand for Klaud to shake.

"Uh should I know who you are geezer?" Klaud asked scratching her cheek in confusion.

"No, I guess you wouldn't." With that Retsu walked away with Yue. "Enjoy your day with your mother Klaud."

"Come now Klaud." Confused by the actions of the elderly stranger, Klaud looked over to her mother who was smiling down at her. "Let's go have a bath together shall we? I can help you put some oil on those unpleasant looking scars while I'm at it."

With that the two young women entered a large Japanese bath together. The flow of the water into the bath was controlled and regulated by water spirits, as well as heated using fire spirits. After soaking in the water for a while Klaud had began to apply the oil to her scars. It was clear that she was suffering. Her body where it was scarred was extremely sensitive, and there were especially sensitive areas that were difficult for her to reach. Additionally her discomfort was dragging the process out for a extended period of time, making her suffer even more. Thus Sakura had made a executive decision and pushed Klaud to the floor inside of the bath.

"Mom...?" With a smile that did not convey a single ounce of motherly affection that she usually displayed Sakura filled both of her hands full of the bio oil.

"Sorry Klaud but this is for your own good."

With that, Sakura began her assault on Klaud's body with her neck, making her let out a squeak as she glided the oil down the mounds of her chest, making a beeline across the torso to the thighs and down the legs. Flipping Klaud over she started the second phase of her attack with Klaud's lower arms gliding them up her arms and down her back and into the butt, rubbing and massaging the oil into every inch of Klaud's scarred body. The combination of the heat and the sensual assault caused Klaud to faint. When she next awoke she was in her mother's room, laying down on her mother's soft body while they both wore bath robes. Instinctively Klaud nuzzled into her, but then she saw a picture on the table next to Sakura. A picture of her family when she was Klaud's age and on it saw a familiar looking man.

"Hey mom." Sakura was currently reading a book while she cuddled her daughter like some type of stuffed toy but none the less turned her attention to her daughter as she reached over and picked up the picture. "The Man in this photo, you said he was your brother right? Toya was his name I think."

"That's correct. What about him has caught your interest Klaud?" Sakura asked while she played with Klaud's hair.

"Nothing, it's just that, he reminds me of a guy I met at school, Tatsuya." Suddenly Sakura hugged Klaud tighter, whom confused looked at her with a puzzled face. "Klaud. Can we stay like this just for a little while longer?"

"No problem mom. I can stay like this all day."

* * *

The Loop card is what it was called if Retsu's memory served him correctly. Simply designate two spots and it will turn everything in between into it's own pocket dimension. Maybe that was how the town inside of it's area of effect was still intact, even though the one that existed outside of the pocket dimension had been completely destroyed.

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 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Me too. Sorry for forgetting about this earlier.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note** : And another chapter done, onto the next. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 11: The Origins of the Modern Magician

Klaud awoke that morning with a stretch, she had a feeling of being refreshed after spending the day before relaxing with her mother. But there was still another of her requests to fulfill before the day began, taking her cell phone out of her bag, Klaud dialed a number on the speed dial and set it to speaker, leaving it on the counter in the bathroom.

" _Hello?_ " The familiar voice on the other end answered.

"Oh Miyuki! Good to hear from you!" Finishing in the bathroom Klaud moved on back to her bed room where she started to get dressed.

" _Good Morning Klaud. What's up?_ "

"Mom wanted to meet some friends of mine from school. Naturally I thought of you and Tatsuya." Klaud explained while she put a pink blouse on.

" _You want us to come all the way over to the countryside just to visit you?_ "

"My family owns a small community of Magic users, they're dedicated to peaceful magical research but the town is a little bit isolated from the rest of the world." Klaud explained while she got her black jean skirt on. "If you want I can send Inari over to pick you up with some of my cards, you guys will be here in like four hours."

" _Can you give me a minuet to ask my brother?_ "

* * *

" _Sure._ "

Miyuki had to admit that it was a certain fantasy of hers to move into the country side, away from the madness of the Ten Magical Clans and the Four Great Nations. Just her, her brother, and everything great about Magic while staying far away from everything that was bad about it.

"Brother!" Tasuya was currently in the basement adapting the improvements he found in Klaud's cards to his magical technology. The fruits of his labors could be seen in the small toilet paper tube sized device he was holding in his palm. "What are you doing?"

"I've adapted the magical formula from a few of Klaud's cards into this device." Tatsuya explained tossing the joystick like device to Miyuki. "Float, Fly and a touch of speed. I would like to say that I eliminated some unnecessary things from those cards in the transition, but the truth is the magical formula in them is already very advance." Tatsuya stated sitting down in his chair while he rubbed his chin. "Each one of those cards. I can't explain it, there's a dense cluster of Psion's and Pushions inside each one of them. From what I can tell, each one of them have a mind of their own, but I've never seen that from a inanimate object before."

Miyuki could clearly tell that her brother was befuddled by this conundrum, but luckily she had just the thing to cheer him up.

"Speaking of, I just got a invite from Klaud to go visit her at home." Miyuki stated holding the phone up that still had Klaud on the other side. "Really?"

Miyuki saw the clear interest in Tatsuya's eyes. Admittedly she was a little bit jealous. None the less she handed over the phone to Tatsuya.

"Hello? The countryside, certainly, Miyuki has always wanted to go and visit and get away from the bustle of city life. Today, should we rent a car? Inari eh? Got it, four hours to get here and four hours to get back that'll do nicely. See you there." Tasuya stated hanging up the phone.

"You sound pretty eager to meet Klaud's parents brother." Miyuki stated letting out a cold voice, and to match that cold voice, white smoke was slowly coming off of her body and causing a build up of frost in the room.

"I'm eager to see if my little sister's dream of a place where magicians can live peacefully can be realized." Tatsuya stated, prompting Miyuki to return the temperature back to normal, and on the contrary her face heated up with a deep crimson blush. Miyuki leaped into Tatsuya's embrace and hugged him close to her. "Come on, we should get dressed for the trip."

* * *

Four hours later Tatsuya and Miyuki were dressed in a black and white flight suits respectively, taking cues from Klaud Tatsuya called in a favor with some friends from the military to get them. The two climbed aboard Inari's back and clipped themselves into his saddle, Miyuki up front and Tatsuya holding her from behind.

"The flight can be a bit lengthy at times, you might want to use this to put you asleep." Inari stated a small fairy like being flying out from his mane and over to the siblings at eye level.

"That won't be necessary, I wish to see the world I want to build from above." Miyuki stated waving away the fairy creature.

With that the two siblings and griffin like familiar flew over the country of Japan, it took a little longer than they had expected, largely because there was so much of the country that Miyuki wanted to see. But instead of the country side, the group ultimately flew into what looked like a desolated town. Completely ignoring what was outside, Inari flew straight into the barrier as if to land. Passing by some type of golden light, the group suddenly found themselves flying above a lively town.

"Is this some kind of illusion? Or is what we passed by a illusion?" Miyuki asked looking around mixed looks of confusion and wonder.

"Welcome to Trap Street lady and gent." Inari stated, intentionally ignoring Miyuki's question.

When they landed, Tatsuya took in the scenery with his eyes, they had landed in a field that was surrounded by a fence and filled more griffins like Inari. The buildings looked European, Japanese and Modern all side by side with one another, and more often then not stacked on top of one another, it was like they were all stacked on top of each other with no rhyme or reason, there were even path ways built between them that criss crossed left and right, even though Inari called it a street, it was more of a block of houses, though with the number stacked on top of each other it was more like several blocks, it oddly enough reminded him of a parking complex. Taking a look through his elemental eyes Tatsuya saw something even stranger, the entire space was distorted, like with the Maze card, but something else was mixed in as well. Complex high level magic was at work here to make this town.

"There's a place for you two to get changed in that barn over there. After that Sapphire will lead you into the house." Inari explained before he unhooked himself and laid down in the grass.

"That town we passed by on our way here, is it an illusion, or is this town a illusion?" Tatsuya asked repeating Miyuki's question with a tone of voice of not being ignored.

"There's no point in answering a question like that, they're both real." Inari stated in a tired tone of voice. "The space of a single street has been warped, twisted and stretched using the power of the cards to create what you see before you."

With that answer Tatsuya left for the barn with Miyuki. Sapphire, dressed as a maid, was already waiting for them, she had brought along a clean set of clothing, a cute little sun dress for Miyuki, and a leather jacket and jeans combination for Tatsuya. It was while the pair was getting changed that Miyuki spoke up again.

"This place is amazing brother." Miyuki explained while she slipped on her dress. "Klaud is amazing. How long as this world of Magic existed right before our eyes?"

"I don't know." Tatsuya stated patting down his jacket. "Longer than either of us have been alive. The Bulk of the public believe that Ancient magicians got the short end of the deal, that we promised them to help modernize ancient magic in exchange for helping us develop modern magic and used that to steal all of their secrets while giving them nothing. But now it feels like the opposite, they gave Modern magicians enough to make them leave them alone but kept their secrets, secret."

"So instead of becoming part of a world that was already breaking, they decided to make a new world to be a part of." Miyuki stated, looking out of the barn and watching the beautiful forest outside. "It seems, almost romantic in a sense."

"That I will have to agree with you Miyuki. But there's also another fact you have to realize." The happy people here, who were going on with their daily lives with a smile on their faces, had gone through a great deal of trouble to hide but for what reason, what is it about the outside world that has these people so scared.

"Come now, Yotsuba siblings." Sapphire ordered making both of the Shiba siblings eyes wide with surprise. "My Mistress is waiting for you."

"How do you know that name?" Tatsuya asked in a angry tone of voice, prompting Sapphire to simply laugh.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't recognize the family that butchered my master's family?" Sapphire replied with a amused tone, as if what she just stated was some kind of joke.

Tatsuya and Miyuki were led inside of the mansion all the way into the living room. Sitting on opposite sides of a coffee table was both Klaud and her mother Sakura. Klaud turned to the doorway and excitedly got up to greet the Shiba siblings.

"Welcome to the Kinomoto residence Tatsuya and Miyuki!" Klaud stated giving them a short curtsy. "I hope Sapphire has been treating you two well."

"Actually she said something pretty rude to us, and I would like an explanation and maybe an apology." Tatsuya stated, keeping his even tone that contained barely managed fury.

"She... did?" Suddenly Klaud collapsed into Sapphires arms, the culprit a small fairy like creature floating above her head.

"Thank you sleep. You may rest now." Sakura stated, the sleep card returning to it's sealed form in her hand. "Sapphire, take Klaud somewhere she can rest for a while. In the mean time, I will entertain my guests." Sakura stated, indicating the couch that was across from her.

"I would like a explanation." Tatsuya stated sitting in the designated spot with his sister. "For starters, how do you know that we are from the Yotsuba clan?"

"You are evidence enough of that." Sakura stated sipping her tea. "Would you mind bringing over the picture on the table next to you?" Fulfilling Sakura's request, Tatsuya picked up the picture frame, but stopped when he saw what was inside it. A family, consisting of a father, a daughter, and a son that was almost a man. And he looked almost exactly like him. "That's a picture of my family when I was Klaud's age. Could you please remove the picture and examine the back? There's a small clip on the back of the frame you can use." Following Sakura's instructions Tatsuya removed the back of the frame and revealed a startling fact. "Now what do you see?"

"This film is Kodak, but that company went out of business over seventy years ago, so this can't be you." Tatsuya stated calmly, with almost forced rationalization.

"What that I'm over one hundred years old? Look at the girl in the picture. You Might need this." Sakura handed Tatsuya a Magnifier glass using which he examined the picture. "See anything familiar?" Sakura stated tapping on her chin where a small scar was located. Looking at the photo, Tatsuya saw a scar on the girl's chin in the same place as Sakura's.

"You have the same scar. That's not proof, you could have just given yourself the same scar as the girl in this photo." Tatsuya stated, sounding more like he was trying to reconcile what he was seeing with reality.

"I actually got that Scar from a girl who had a crush on my boyfriend. And to think that we would name our first daughter after her too." Sakura stated as if she was fondly reminiscing about the past.

"And what does this have to do with us?" Tatsuya stated somewhat annoyed as he threw the picture on the table.

"My brother was one of millions of Japanese citizens to volunteer for the Army at the outbreak of the Third World War." Sakura stated, a serious straight look on her face as she pored a cup of tea. "I hadn't heard from him in month's so I went and tracked him down." Sakura dropped a couple cubes of sugar into the tea. "I found him, eventually, most of him anyway." Sakura stated, holding her palm over the picture in a manner that deliberately hid almost half of her brother's body. "He was barely alive, missing his arm and both of his legs. But he didn't lose them in conflict, his superiors hacked them off." Sakura's anger could be seen in the way that the tea cup that she was holding onto shook. "So after we went into hiding in this little 'Trap Street' here I started to nurse him back to health with the aid of my familiar here among others." Sakura stated directing the siblings attention to her butler who looked like he was made to remember something sad. "A decade or so into the war, you can imagine my surprise when I learned of 'Magic Soldiers.' Young children, about ten years old, and the spitting image of my brother that was literally butchered like a slab of meat!" Sakura snapped, starting to vent her anger. "The 'Genius Creations' of the Fourth Magical Laboratories they created by hacking apart my brother like a stuffed pig. patenting him and then mass producing him as slaves and weapons of war!"

"That's... That's horrible!" Miyuki, who was just told something extremely horrifying, bent over and cried into her brother's chest.

"So to answer your question, the reason why I know that you are from the Yotsuba family is quite simple, because you are the spitting image of the man they destroyed to make to make you." Sakura stated, forcing herself to calm down and continuing with barely contained fury. "I thought I could get some closure by talking to my brother's ghost, but it would seem that hatred of your kind outweighs my love for him." Sakura stated before she exhaled and took a deep breath. "But that is not why I called the two of you here today." Placing the tea cup that she had not drank from yet on the table Sakura folded her hands together before she continued. "I need you two to help my daughter."

"Why do you need our help, you've clearly got enough powerful magic on your own?" Tatsuya asked, patting Miyuki of was crying into his chest on her back.

"This is not about Magic!" Sakura snapped before she breathed in again. "This is about ability. You two, along with my daughter Klaud, are the three most capable magicians of your age in Japan. You three, represent the best chance we have, to save this broken world from itself." Suddenly, a holographic globe appeared above the table projecting the current world state. "I cannot speak about the other great powers, but it seems that Japan's favorite hobby for the past hundred years is to massacre thousands of innocent people. This can't continue. The world needs to change."

"But someone with your power and influence..." Miyuki stated, but was met with the eyes of a defeated person. "It's too late for me. My hatred of your kind has almost stained my heart black. What Love I have left in this world I have for my daughters, and few others." Sakura stated sadly before continuing on. "The world being changed by hatred is precisely how we ended up in this situation. But Klaud, who was raised to believe in peace away from my hatred is different."

"And that is why she needs our help, she has the power to change the world but she can't do it by herself." Tatsuya stated narrowing a glare at Sakura.

"No one can change the world by themselves, to do so would be to become the same kind of Monster that you wish to expunge." Sakura stated finally taking a sip from her tea. "Yue, could you bring Klaud in here while she's still asleep? If I can avoid it I'd rather she not know I rendered her unconscious."

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 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: They've been through a lot in the past ninety years, as explained in this chapter. But Mistress is mostly what Yue addresses Sakura in public or when she has guests over. Toya isn't Tatsuya and Tatsuya isn't Toya, he's a distant ancestor to the Shiba siblings one with traits shown in both of them, IE Tatsuya's looks and Miyuki's home maker skills. As for Tomoyo, you do realize that normal humans don't live to be a hundred years old right?

Hornofdesolation: Well it can be a bit hard to keep track of all the names, and besides that would imply that it's all the same set of cards.

Duked: And Clow Reed lived to be two hundred before he died, and not of natural causes need I remind you, and Sakura's at least as strong as he is.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note** : Chapter 12, and next week, the nine Schools competition! Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 12: The Culture of the Ancient Magician

Klaud was leading the Shiba siblings on a tour of Trap Street, and she was starting with the market place. The three of them were now looking at a stall with several key's similar to Klaud's own. Aside from the sun that Klaud used there was also a variety of animal heads, moon and star staffs.

"They all look so cute!" Miyuki stated as she looked at one of the staffs that was shaped like a rabbit's head.

"The various heads represent where they draw power from. The Sun, Moon and Star staffs all draw power from the various cosmic bodies. Think of them as like, little magical power generators. The animal heads are more general use, they draw their power from nature, though they're not as powerful they're a lot better during both the day and night, the sun and Moon staffs are usually a day or night thing, Stars are also mostly at night time thing, but the moon shifts with the lunar phases, so that level of power shifts with the time of the month." Klaud explained as she gestured to the various staffs.

"OH! These are so adorable!" Miyuki went over to another stand where several toys like Inari's stuffed animal form.

"Those are griffin shells, just add a little bit of magical energy and instant familiar." Klaud explained gesturing to a manual that appeared to be sold with the griffins.

"Oh! I want to take one home with me!" It wasn't a issue of not being able to afford them, both siblings had a lot of money on them, and even if they didn't have local currency Klaud could easily buy them one or two.

The issue here was that by taking any of those things out of this area, would expose them to the outside world, and especially the ruthless Yotsuba clan that left a irreparable wound on the people of this town and the family that governed it, and that would be a blow to Klaud they could not handle.

"What about the 'Angels' like Sapphire?" Tatsuya asked remembering the image of the angelic woman who told them off earlier.

"We use humans as a base for those, so it's a kind a grey area." Klaud explained before she saw another stand and completely lost track of what she was doing. "Oh Nugan fruit! I love Nugan fruit!" Klaud stated as she ran over to a stand that was selling what suspiciously looked like a cross between a squash and a water melon. After Paying for the fruit Klaud broke the stem off and began drinking the liquid contents inside. "You guys want to try some too? It's really good!" With that Klaud paid for two more Nugan fruit and gave them to Miyuki and Tatsuya to drink.

Immediately, the Shiba siblings were hit with a massive stimulation to the tongue, the use of multiple contradictory flavors complimented and enhanced upon one another but especially singled out their favorites as the peak, it had a slimy but extremely pleasant texture as well adding further stimulation to the tongue but really went down easy too. So easy in fact that it was over too soon so Klaud bought them three more.

"These are really great and all, but I thought you your family didn't believe in Genetic engineering?" Miyuki stated examining the miracle fruit that she sincerely doubted was naturally occurring.

"It's not it's Magical engineering." Klaud stated sipping more Nugan juice.

"Magical engineering? You mean like what Big brother does?" Miyuki asked as scratched her head.

"Genetic engineering takes the genes from subject A and injects them into Subject B transferring the desired qualities from A into B." Klaud explained gesturing a back and forth motion with her hands. "Magic engineering takes Eidos from A and puts them into B, transferring the desired qualities from A into B."

"But isn't just the same as genetic engineering then?" Miyuki asked scratching her head as she started to get a handle on the situation.

"Mmm. Yes and no. For example it doesn't just apply to living things but also to anything with a Eidos. For example." Klaud was now gesturing to the Nugan fruit that was still in her hand. "Doesn't Nugan fruit's shell remind you of a juice container? After all it's hollow inside containing a lot of liquid."

"Really?" Testing Klaud's theory, Miyuki felt around the Nugan fruit and came to a disturbing revelation. "It's plastic!"

"Not quite Miyuki. Look!" Pointing back at the stand, Tatsuya revealed a tree in the back from which the woman operating the stand picked six more Nugan fruit and put them on display as is. "I would like to have a more in depth look at the concept of Magical engineering around here sometime."

"Ah check it out! Broom stick racing!" Klaud stated as she excitedly ran over to a railing and looked over.

Tatsuya and Miyuki both looked over the side and saw that there was indeed several people were lining up on 'brooms' down below, that is how loose you are with the term broom. In several cases, there were wings from either some kind of bird or bat on the back sides of the brooms, others appeared to have fire spewing out of their back sides, more of this magical engineering that Klaud was talking about.

"Race day! And Me without my 'Dragon's' Hat!" Klaud stated excitedly rubbing her forehead.

"It isn't really part dragon right?" Tatsuya asked a little concerned now.

"Don't be ridiculous Tatsuya there hasn't been a living dragon on earth in centuries." Klaud stated smiling and waving her hand dismissively. "They'd have to go all the way to Draconis to get one and they're way to big for transportation magic."

"That's comforting." Tatsuya stated sarcastically.

From what Tatsuya could tell the sport was largely identical to horse racing, they had a large circular track to run around in, the goal was to fly around the track a number of times. No sooner that the gates open did the riders and all their strange contraptions fly off around the track, the announcer gave off various color commentary that Tatsuya didn't understand, but as far as he could tell Klaud's favorite won, the 'Dragon.' After that Klaud showed them to a large rectangular platform.

"It's a magical dueling platform. Think of it as a sort of gun fight or a sword fight only with a lot deeper tactics." Klaud explained as two people walked on top of the platform.

"Do you think big brother could take a shot at them later?" Miyuki asked a clear bit of hope in her eyes.

"These guys aren't exactly fond of modern magicians Miyuki, announcing it in front of everyone isn't a good idea. Besides this is less for sport and more for settling our differences in a non-violent manner." Klaud stated, as the two dueling magicians behind created a explosion that knocked each other off of the platform. "Mostly non violent. Wex Stones is a lot better for that sort of thing."

"Wex Stones?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud confused.

"Yah Rebecca use to be the champion around here. I got a video of one of her old matches if you want to see it?" Klaud stated pointing back to the Mansion.

* * *

The three First high Students sat down on the couch each with a Nugan fruit in front of them on the table.

"Basically, you've got a eight by eight tile board each one inscribed with a different magical formula. You roll the dice, and which ever one the die lands on you gotta decipher it and use it, the more complicated the formula the more points it's worth but the harder it is to do they're ranked on a scale of one to ten and color coded, the more tiles you affect the greater the multiplier of your score and the more tiles affect the fewer formula your opponent can score points with." Klaud stated as she used the remote to bring the video footage up.

Rebecca looked about their age, if they didn't know better they'd say that it was Klaud in the video. Rebecca was the first to go, and the last. On her first role she landed on a black tile roughly in the center of the board, Rebecca made a extended series of hand gestures while muttering something, and a small black orb appeared a foot or so into the air and like a black hole it sucked up the entire board and disappeared, leaving behind a small silvery sphere and crashed into the ground leaving a deep crater. Near as Tatsuya could tell, it was extremely high level, extremely dangerous magic that had successfully annihilated the entire board which meant a score of ten multiplied by sixty four.

"Is that what you call a perfect score?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"Let's just say for now nobody wanted to play her again. Which is I think what she was going for anyway." Klaud stated giggling while she drank more Nugan juice. "Well I want to unwind, anyone else interested?"

* * *

"Haha! Today was great!" Klaud stated as she relaxed into a large Japanese bath.

"I really enjoyed myself! And it's been a while since Magic has been so fun!" Miyuki stated smiling warmly while she rubbed water onto herself. "Tatsuya's been having fun too! You might not be able to tell, but there's been a look of wonder on his face ever since he stepped foot into Trap Street. You've shown him so many different ways that magic can be used!"

"There are many ways to use magic." Suddenly the two girls turned around and were greeted by the sight of Klaud's mother, already ready to join them in the bath. "Just as there are many ways to use science, technology, mathematics, art. The secret is to think about not what 'can magic do' but rather 'what could magic do.'" Sakura walked over to the edge of the bath and crouched down to meet them. "Mind if I join you?"

"You're welcomed to any time mom you know that!" Klaud stated waving her mother over. At once Sakura sat down in the hot water between both girls and immediately relaxed her body with a audible sigh.

"If you don't mind me asking, but do you get along with your other daughters?" Miyuki asked looking at Sakura concernedly.

"I know what you mean. I love all of my daughters, but I disagree with their life style choices. Rebecca, as far as I know, has not spent a single day of the past ten years sober. Maylin and Madison are constantly putting their lives in danger. Honestly those three are going to give me a heart attack one of these days." Sakura stated shaking her head in sheer disappointment.

"Madison? But I thought that she was a fashion designer?" Miyuki stated a look of surprise on her face.

"A magician. A Fashion designer? Did you really buy that story?" Sakura stated letting out a hollow laugh. "She's a smuggler and a spy! Personnel, weapons, tech, supplies, anything Maylin needs for her suicide missions and Rebecca needs for her mad little experiments. The Nugan fruit that Klaud's so fond of: she came up with that when she was five years old."

"Just when I thought the other two were scary." Miyuki stated hiding her gasp behind her hand.

"Actually Madison was always nice to me except for..." Klaud suddenly went quiet, prompting Miyuki to look over at her concerned. "...ashion ows." Klaud mumbled as she sunk lower into the tub.

"What?" Miyuki asked noticing a change in Klaud's face. "Klaud you're blushing do you need to get out of the water?"

"Oh she means the fashion shows! Oh Madison always comes up with the cutest outfits for Klaud to wear. I guess she really does take after her god mother, and to think I even named her after her." Sakura gushed, prompting her to go over to a wall console and turn it on. "I have some of her highlight reels here if you want to see them." Klaud just sunk even deeper into the hot water.

* * *

With the day finally over the group decided to head back to First high, now that the weekend was nearing the end they would be expected back soon. Klaud used the Sleep card to ease their trip while Sapphire handled the luggage.

"So The young Mistress appears to have made some new friends Inari." Sapphire stated as the two familiars of Klaud passed through the barrier.

"Maybe the Yotsuba aren't so bad after all Sapphire."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Thank you for point that out for me, it always helps me when my Readers point out my typos.

Duked: Thank you for saying so it's greatly appreciated, also, wish granted!


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note** : Alright, filler's done, for now, now we can move on with the story line. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 13: Magical Physical Education

Early that morning, a meeting was called between the members of the clubs management committee, the public morals committee, and the student council in order to discuss 'The Nine School's Competition.'

"The Nine School's Competition? What's that?" Klaud asked looking around the room confusedly.

"If you grew up out here instead of that isolationist community of yours you'd know these sorts of things." Tatsuya stated pointing a pen accusingly at Klaud. "The Nine School's Competition is a yearly sports festival held between the nine magical academies of Japan to determine which school has the highest level of practical magical ability."

"Correct. And this year we're going to be facing stiff competition, so we would like to ask Tatsuya and Klaud to participate." Mayumi stated sitting at the head of the table and smiling warmly at the assembled group.

"Us? What do you want us to do?" Klaud asked confusedly.

"The Nine Schools competition is not merely about athletics. Each school counts on a team of expert magical engineers to give them a decisive edge over the competition." Now Mayumi turned her attention to Tatsuya and gestured to him with her hand. "Naturally we would like to ask the best magical engineer in the entire school, Tatsuya to work with us."

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to decline." Mayumi looked like a kicked puppy with that statement. "I don't have enough confidence in my skills to represent the entire school."

"Don't sell yourself short Big Brother." Everyone turned their attention to Miyuki who was holding a file called 'Mirage Bat.' "I know I want you to tune my CAD for me." Miyuki stated holding her cheek in her hand.

"If you put it like that. Then I have no other choice but to serve as one of your magical engineers." Tatsuya stated as if the earlier statement was merely just a lie.

"Your sister's got you wrapped around your little finger yah know that right?" Klaud stated smirking knowingly at Tatsuya. "But what do yah want with me?"

"Obviously, we would like Klaud to participate as one of the competitors in the rookie events." Mayumi explained gesturing to the pile of folders next to her.

"Me? You're joking right? I can't even use a CAD let alone participate in the competition!" Klaud stated looking very surprised and very, very confused.

"The competition rules don't state that you have to be able to use a CAD just use Magic. Even if you yourself don't participate, your Cards represent a decisive and massive edge over the competition." Mayumi stated clapping her hands together excitedly.

"The Cards aren't suppose to be used for pity competition Guys." Klaud stated as she rolled her eyes and face palmed in annoyance.

"And using them to carry a building over the city and dump it into the ocean is okay?" Mari asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"I was just angry then, plus I nearly killed myself don't you know! And besides don't you think these are just a bit of a unfair edge?" Klaud stated fanning the cards into her face. "Isn't it kind of hypocritical to use these things that the school had absolutely nothing to do with to show off the school at the school show off competition?"

"This isn't just about the School Klaud. This is your chance to stop hiding." Klaud could only just look at Miyuki confusedly. "If you want to change the world, then you have to become a part of it first, you have to become respected, and what better way to do that then to become a recognized athlete? No matter what the age is, people listen to celebrities Klaud." Miyuki explained waving her finger back and forth like a lecturer.

"What's this about Klaud changing the world?" Katsuho asked looking at the group out of the corner of his eye.

"I just want everyone to stop using Magic to tear the planet apart, what's wrong with that?" Klaud asked resting her cheek on her hand and giving the room a generally annoyed look.

"Your ideas are good Klaud, but unless you and drag that Isolationist group of yours out of that hole your mother dug that's all they're gonna ever be is ideas." Tatsuya explained looking at Klaud knowingly. "Oh for the love of... Fine Fine I'll help you guys!" Klaud stated in a defeated tone of voice before she slammed her face into her desk. The truth was that even though Klaud was good with fighting, she was horrible when it came to people. This sports festival was a excellent chance to help correct that issue. After all the world that Klaud hoped to created one day was truly beautiful, and they wanted to help her build it.

* * *

"A Weed? And a first year at that? Unacceptable!" The one to make that declaration was none other than Shun Morisaki. "You are going to bet the entire tournament on this second rate hack!?"

Naturally of course, when Mayumi announced the Student council's intentions there were more than a few individuals whom doubted Tatsuya's abilities.

"Shun, stop being noisy or I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson!" Klaud stated with the quiet card already in her hand.

"I understand that you feel that way. Naturally we all want to do our very best for the school. That's why it is necessary to consider every option we have. And the best way to prove that Tatsuya is a capable CAD tuner, is to have him tune a CAD." Mayumi stated waving her finger back and forth.

"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how dangerous a improperly tuned CAD is?" Shun stated as he continued to vent his anger about the situation. "Even the slightest mistake can lead to a catastrophic backfire of psions!"

"That shouldn't be a problem." Takeaki stated standing up. "That guy is suppose to tune his sister's CAD every other day, and his technical scores are suppose to be top notch. I'll volunteer to get my CAD tuned if it will put your mind at ease."

* * *

Inside of the school's in house computer lab, an assembled group of competitors were watching Tatsuya tune Takeaki's CAD. Takeaki was laying down on the scanning table wearing only his pants while Tatsuya worked on the nearby console.

"Remember Tatsuya, nothing fancy, just copy the information from Takeaki's CAD onto the general use one." Mayumi explained leaning over Tatsuya's shoulder.

"Really?" Tatsuya just shrugged his shoulders as he set to work. "Safety first I guess."

After a few minuets of tapping keys the tuning process was completed and Takeaki got up from the table. Takeaki put the white general use CAD that was sitting next to his regular purple one and put it on his wrist. Then he picked up the Shikai that was given to him by Mibu and activated the CAD. Immediately, a quiet hum was emitted from the weapon that was cloaked in a mass of orange rotating air.

"It's so much like my regular CAD it's scary." Takeaki noted as he swung the razor sharp weapon a safe distance away from his classmates a few times. "I didn't even know that a General use CAD could pull something like this off."

"Then it's settled, Tatsuya is our new chief magical engineer!" Mayumi stated as she gestured to Tatsuya in a overly Dramatic manner.

* * *

A few days later two buses from First High School were preparing to head off to the Nine School's Competition. On the first bus were the various competitors for the tournament and the second were the technical team that would be supporting them, alongside all of the equipment for the competition. Though some would argue that they were technical equipment for the competition.

"It's not fair! Tatsuya is being treated as a piece of equipment!" Miyuki whined while she stuck the upper portions of her body out the window. "What's worst is that he's being made to suffer through this heat!"

As a member of the disciplinary committee, and more importantly one of three members who would be going to the competition itself, Tatsuya was given the thankless task of taking attendance for the bus ride, in ninety plus degree weather no less.

"Lay off it Miyuki, he could just sit on the steps going into the bus for attendance, but instead he choose to stay outside." Klaud was also outside, getting Inari ready to fly her all the way to the Nine School's competition.

"Speaking of which why are you dressed like that?" Miyuki asked as she looked down at Klaud who suspiciously looked like she was getting ready to fly to the Nine School's Competition. "Klaud doesn't travel well, and she doesn't want anyone to know." Inari explained, receiving a solid blow to the top of his head in response.

"Thank you for deliberately counteracting my point for me!" Klaud snapped grinding her fist into Inari's head.

"Now now Klaud, Car sickness is nothing to be ashamed about, but getting heat stroke because you spent too much time in the sun is a no-no." Miyuki stated waving her finger at Klaud with a disapproving scowl on her face.

"Heat Stroke? Compared to back packing through Egypt for a month with Maylin this is a cool afternoon breeze. And Besides." Klaud held up a card that looked like a crystallized fish of some sort that said 'The Ice.' "Even if it was a problem I got it covered." Saying that Klaud jumped onto Inari's back and clipped herself in, before the two of them walked towards the front of the bus preparing to take off when they noticed a certain late arrival rushing to the bus.

"Sorry I was late." It was Mayumi, more importantly it was Mayumi wearing a new sundress that didn't even have the tag taken off yet, showing that in spite of arriving late she was in a hurry to get dressed.

"Honestly Mayumi!" Mari walked out from inside of the bus with a scowling glare on her face, she quickly went up to Mayumi and ripped the tag off of her clothes. "Getting dressed fancily for your crush has a limit you know!"

"What? I don't have a..." Mayumi was stunned by Mari's Vicious remark and left blushing, but they didn't stop there. "Especially when you make him wait out in the hot, hot heat for two hours!" Mari snapped poking her finger into Mayumi's chest. "But Don't look at me. After all I'm not the one who you have to answer to." Suddenly, frost started emerge out of the bus, and Mari wisely choose to get out of the way.

"Mayumi..." Emerging from the bus that you would never believe was in Ninety degree weather was none other than Miyuki who had the look of a demon right now. "What is this I hear about you having a crush on my brother?"

And thus for the entire trip, no one in the competitors bus had want of air conditioner.

* * *

Inari, with the sleeping Klaud on his back was flying over the highway following the two bus's from first high. Then it happened, almost in slow motion. A car that was going the other way on the other side of the highway struck the dividers at high speed and flipped over them landing in the path of the bus and rapidly approaching them at an accelerated rate and to make matters worst several of the students inside the bus panicked and fired off a slew of magical spells at the car turning it into volatile magical bomb.

"This is bad! No choice then! Brute force it is!" Saying that, Inari zoomed over and pounced on the car crushing it further before he tossed it off of the road. "Is everyone alright?"

Various surprised voices echoed throughout the bus. True, they had heard rumors about Klaud's familiars, but none of them had seen them up close until now. They were astonished at the immense power that the creature possessed. Suddenly, the mangled door of the car was blown off of it's hinges and tossed through the air and landed a little bit away from Inari. Inari saw someone climbing up the railing that separated the highway from the land below it. Quickly he jumped to the bus and blocked the path of the students that were trying to get off of the bus.

"Unhook her and wake her up!" Inari snapped prompting the nearest student to bend down, unhook Klaud, and drag her inside of the bus.

At once Inari disappeared from the sight of the first high students and pounced on the man who had just finished climbing up the to the highway. Using super human strength the man pulled Inari off of him and leaned over him to punch him. For his troubles however, he received a huge blast of solar energy that sent him flying through the air further down the highway landing with the sound of the pavement breaking.

"Alright now I'm mad!"

Inari got to his feet and shook the dust off of him, glaring hatefully at the man he just tossed a good distance. Far from shaken though, the man got back up without a scratch and began running at the familiar again at roughly 1200 miles per hour.

"Oh that's so not fair!"

Not one to be out done Inari took off through the air at top speed and slammed hard into the man that was running at them, biting at his shoulder and ripping at his flesh with his claws. Inari blasted his solar beam directly into the man's open wound that was in his mouth and a huge explosion occurred that threw him off of the super human man. When the smoke cleared the man was standing still, the top layer of his flesh burned off revealing a material that was super heated to a bright red that slowly started to cool off to a black color.

"Okay, now that's not fair!"

The man looked at the Familiar with a look of cool neutrality as he slowly started to walk forward. Then he suddenly vanished. Turned into a cloud of smoke that disappeared on the wind. When Inari looked over, he saw Klaud yawning while she got out of the bus.

"Why are you being so noisy Inari? Don't you know how hard it is to sleep through something like this?" Klaud asked as she put both her staff and 'The Erase' Card away. "Now does someone mind telling me what's going on?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Sakura has met with the Yotsuba siblings before, but she and Maya don't get along. Largely do to Ideological differences.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note** : Another chapter down, next chapter, we see some action, but I'm busy with something else right now so it might be a little late. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 14: Magical News Media

It was a long bus ride over. Inari who had suffered minor injuries during the fight against the inhuman man that had launched, and survived, a suicidal attack on the bus, was forced to turn into his small stuffed toy form in order to recover and thus was made to ride in the bus with Klaud. Klaud was clearly suffering from severe car sickness during the trip, even while she was sleeping. When the class arrived outside of the hotel reserved for the games, they were greeted by the sight of a huge number of spectators and reporters. Appropriate for a sporting event, several of the returning competitors from the previous years could be thought of as celebrities, and first high was no exception. In fact First high in particular was popular. Unfortunately there was this thing called social media and now there were videos and reports plastered all over the internet about a inhuman super soldier fighting a griffin after a failed suicide attack on first high school's buses. Naturally of course, Klaud who is the owner of this aforementioned griffin would be one of the major targets for the reporters.

"I swear they only get worst and worst every year." Mayumi stated sighing in sheer disappointment at the crowd who all wanted a piece of them. "Is it too much to ask that they just leave us alone just one time?"

"Well Klaud's going to be a hot topic this time around. But..." Tatsuya stated, as he eyed the individual in question who was being carried piggy back style by Tatsuya.

"In any case, here goes nothing." Katsuho was the first one out of the bus, blocking the view of a great many people wishing for a picture of the people behind him, followed shortly thereafter by Mayumi, Mari and Tatsuya who was carrying the still sleeping Klaud.

"Whoa is that the girl with the griffin familiar?"

"I heard she used a magic spell to carry a building across a town once!"

"Who is she? Is she part of the Ten Magical clans?"

While these questions and more were flying about the area they all suddenly stopped. This was on account of the fact that all of the reporters had suddenly upped and vanished, transported across the entire area finding themselves inside of abandoned buildings, fields, forests, inside of a large moat, inside the hotel, and several other awkward situations that were better left to the imagination. Just when everyone was pondering what happened.

"Get away... get away..." Tatsuya saw the sleep talking Klaud holding the quiet card. "Stupid... clowns!"

After that they wisely choose to remain silent until they got inside the Hotel.

"Klaud!" A familiar woman who worked as a personal servant for Klaud ran over to them and gave her, and Tatsuya in the process. "Are you okay!? I heard about everything that happened on the news! I swear that if they hurt one hair on your head I'll hunt down and kill every last one of them!"

"Uh Sapphire, she's kinda out like a light." Tatsuya stated, as he pushed Saphire off of him. "Although do please if you wanna carry her to her room I'd be more than happy to let you." With that Sapphire went and carried Klaud off to her room while everyone else was getting situated.

* * *

After unpacking their stuff the various students of the ten magical academies were made to gather together in a large ceremonial hall, a welcoming party was held for the various students. For convenience sake, all of the students were made to wear their respective academy uniforms, with but a few acceptations who did not arrive via bus.

"Erika? What are you doing here?" Tatsuya asked staring in surprise at Erika who had walked up to them wearing a waiters suit and holding a trey with orange drink on top.

"Isn't that obvious? I got a job here as a waiter so that I could watch the Nine School's competition!" Erika replied winking and holding the trey in front of them. "Not everyone is a hot shot rookie who wooed the president's heart yah know!" Suddenly, a cold chill ran through the air as the drinks Erika was holding suddenly froze over. "And that's my cue to leave!" Saying that, Erika quickly escaped the wrath of Miyuki who was about to turn her into a Popsicle.

"Brother I didn't know that you had a thing for the president." Tatsuya on the other hand had a bit of work to do calming down his sister.

"Lovely night for a party don't you think Sapphire?" Inari stated, in his full lion form and sitting to Klaud's right, often the subject of selfies of those passing by.

"Tis a shame though that there's no alcohol, otherwise I'd toast to your health old friend." Sapphire replied, her angelic form apparent and wearing her golden kimono to Klaud's left.

"Come on guys people are staring! Can't you try being a little more discreet?" Klaud asked looking awfully flustered.

"When it comes to your safety? No." Inari stated as another student selfie with him.

"Who ever attacked the bus was targeting First High students would feel inclined to do so again. But they already know that Inari chased them off once already, as long as he's out they will not do so again." Sapphire stated gesturing to the griffin in question.

"Look over there!" Across the room, a group of television reporters were pointing directly at Klaud. "It's the Magician with the familiars!"

Klaud saw the reporters coming and immediately hid behind Sapphire.

"Guys..." Klaud replied a little fearful, she really wasn't good when it came to people like this.

"Sorry but we have no interest in talking to the media this evening, please go annoy someone else." Ignoring Sapphire's warnings the reports shoved their mikes, camera's and questions into hers, Inari's and they tried with Klaud who repeatedly avoided their wandering equipment by hiding behind the other two. "Perhaps Sapphire was being too polite, I understand that it's something of a character of hers." Suddenly the cameras were all simultaneously destroyed by Inari's sun blasts. "Piss off!"

"And now introducing, our guess speaker for this evening, Retsu Kudou."

With that announcement the lights suddenly went out and as if by magic, at the same though an extremely lovely looking woman appeared on stage. Through her though, as if he were a ghost, walked a familiar Ninety year old man.

"Good evening students." The Lights suddenly went back on and the ghost like woman disappeared from the stage. "As you may have guessed by now, I am Retsu Kudou, but what you saw right now was not magic in the technical sense, but rather a very sophisticated Illusion, old school magic if you will." Klaud was one of the few people she suspected to see through it.

A image of a woman, projected onto the stage by several spot lights that were behind it, creating a 'ghost object' where the lights all met, and because they were all projecting the same image what they saw was a three dimensional illusion.

"Had this been an attack by one of our enemies, I believe that only five of you would have realized what was happening. So allow me to put this bluntly: the lesson here is that not all of the worlds problems originate from magic, nor should you assume that you can solve all the world's problems using magic. Those of your who have been gathered here today represent the future hopes and dreams of this nation, each and every one of you the best and brightest of the Nine Magical academies, so it is your responsibility to recognize the hurdles ahead of you and overcome them." Bowing his head, Retsu prepared to leave. "With that said, I leave you now to your activities with the hope that your time here has made you all a little wiser."

Retsu left the stage and went out back, where he ran into an old acquaintance of his.

"Good evening Maylin, looking for a bit of a romantic liaison?" Retsu stated looking at his old crush as she leaned against a far wall.

"Seventy years ago maybe, back before I figured out I was immortal and before you turned all wrinkly." Maylin stated as she tossed a empty bottle that she was now finished with into a recycling can. "I'm here to discuss a recent visit you made to my mother's residence, and whom you visited with. I'm warning you now old man: You touch a single hair on Klaud's head then there won't a single deep crater, barren rock or metal box that you will be safe from mine wrath am I making myself clear!?"

"What a harsh thing to say to your old boyfriend!" Retsu replied, unafraid as he continued to walk away. "Are you really going to have your country burn again over such a trivial matter?"

"We have before." That made Retsu stop in his tracks. "Or did you think that someone else was responsible for 'Scorched Halloween?'"

* * *

Back in the ball room, everyone was using it for what ballrooms are used for, dancing. Tatsuya was already 'invited' to dance with Saegusa and was currently doing the waltz with her. Klaud had slowly made her way to the door. She was almost home free.

"Excuse me."

"Look buddy, I don't want to do any interviews, talk about magic, familiars or people trying to kill me anymore tonight." Klaud stated in a exasperated sigh.

"It sounds like you've had a rough night. Would you like to dance to take your mind off of it?" Klaud turned around and faced her would be dance partner. He wore the red uniform of the Third Magical Academy, and had auburn colored hair with green eyes. "After all it's a bit of a shame for someone so pretty to not have a dance partner." The young man stated holding out his hand.

"My name is Klaud." Making a bit of room for her, the two Familiars stepped away from Klaud.

"Masaki, at your service." Holding out his hand Masaki led Klaud onto the dance floor.

"I'm not very good at this sort of thing." Klaud stated as she blushed somewhat nervously.

"That's okay, I'll lead." Masaki stated as he put his hands into position.

"Lead all you want but keep your hands off of my hips!" Klaud snapped, prompting Masaki to move his hand up.

"Sorry, you're a bit taller then the girls I learned to dance with. Now, side step." As instructed Klaud side stepped to the right. "Side Step." Again to the right. "Twirl." Klaud stood on her toes with one hand in the air as Masaki spun her around. "And down low." Grabbing Klaud by her waist, he then lowered to the ground before pulling her back up. "Now the other way. Side Step." Facing the direction the two of them just came from Klaud and Masaki started to go in the other direction now.

* * *

The two of them repeated that pattern throughout the night until one in the morning. Afterwards Klaud and everyone else went back to their rooms.

"So Klaud did you enjoy your date?" Sapphire asked smirking knowingly at the blushing Klaud as they walked down the halls.

"She should have, she spent half the night in each other's arms." Inari stated as the approached the door.

"Oh you look so cute together! First comes Love! Then comes the Baby Carriage! And then Marriage!" Sapphire proclaimed twirling around on the spot.

"I think you got that backwards Sapphire." Inari stated looking suspiciously at the angelic being.

"Don't you know that an illegitimate duplicitous affair is way more romantic Inari! Honestly you have no concept of love!" Sapphire stated while she continued to dance around the Hallway.

"You would know I guess." Inari replied in a dull tone of voice.

"Can we please stop talking about my love life!?" Klaud screamed while she swiped her card through her door. "It's nothing like that!"

"That's not what the news has been saying." When the door to her room opened Klaud was greeted by the sight of her three sisters whom were lounging about the room. Maylin in particular was sitting opposite from the door with a tablet in hand. "'Rising star in Magic Klaud Reed and 'Crimson Prince' Masaki Ichijou a couple? Or not? You decide!'" Maylin stated holding the tablet up for Klaud to see, which it should be noted depicted Masaki's hand on her ass.

For a good few minuets Klaud just stared in shock mid step. Then she screamed.

"Honestly Klaud." Rebecca complained as she finished putting a final layer of masking tap on Klaud's bound and gagged form. "If you didn't scream and run away every time you saw us then we wouldn't have to go through this every single time!" Klaud indignantly screamed a mumble while she bounced around the chair.

"And who's fault is that Rebecca? I seem to recall her getting shot by a bunch of soviet Gangsters because of you!" Maylin snapped while she leaned her cheek on her fist.

"Says the one that made me stitch her back up after you got ever bone in her body smashed to pieces?" Rebecca stated she took several gulps from her flask. "Besides we're not nearly as bad as Madison."

"You'll never run away from me will you hug pillow Klaud?" Madison stated hugging a pillow as long as she was which should be noted depicted a nude Klaud.

"True." Maylin commented watching the sight that was, in a word, creepy.

Klaud mumbled another scream as she continued to try an break out of the chair without much success.

"What are you saying anyway?" Rebecca before she ripped the tape off of Klaud's mouth.

"YEOUCH!" It took a minuet of Klaud streaming tears down the side of her face before she recovered from the shock. "WHAT ARE YOU THREE EVEN DOING HERE!?" Klaud screamed before she had another patch of masking tape smacked over her mouth.

"Don't scream you'll wake your classmates!" Rebecca said before she downed more of her drink.

"Do we really need a excuse to come and watch our own little sister participate in her school's yearly sports festival?" Klaud leveled a knowing Glare Maylin, the type where you don't even dignify a comment like that with a response. "Fine! We heard about the attack on the internet and we came to investigate!" Maylin snapped, now looking extremely annoyed.

"Don't give us a look like that sis! You know we love you!" Madison stated as she came over and hugged Klaud. "In fact, I don't even need my hug pillow tonight." To this statement, Klaud let out a pitiful whine with a terrified look on her face.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: Eh a little famous, course it's mostly limited to the futuristic magical equivalent to the tabloids at this point in time.

Duked: They have generally mixed feelings about both each other and Tatsuya.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note** : Another day, another Week, things are still slow going so next week might be a bit late though I'll try to get it done in time. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 15: Magical Physical Education: Battle Board

The first event, of the first day of the Nine Schools Competition. Taking advantage of their recent publicity concerning the attack on them, Mayumi had taken the liberty of convincing Inari to serve as first high's mascot for a period of time. Mayumi had already taken the liberty of having First high flowers painted on the Griffin's wings, and had attached a banner to his rump and he was now flying above the arena. Of course, the main reason why Inari agreed to do this in the first place was because it gave him the opportunity to scout the area in the event that another attack was attempted. The first event of the day was Battle board. Basically you have a moat, with water circulating around it. You anchor yourself to the board using magic, and use more magic to push yourself forward as well. First one to make it around three times is the winner. Mari Watanabe, the resident head of the public morals committee and one of First High's big three, was the resident star athlete of the morning. Though those in the first high seats watching the game did have one thing that was on their mind.

"Klaud where did you go?" Miyuki asked as she looked around the Arena.

Although not participating in the match herself, Klaud did promise that she would be there the evening before, and since it was unlike her break a promise to a friend then that left only the one possibility.

"Oi I found her." Tatsuya took the liberty of locating the miserable depressed wreck of a student and dragging her to the stands.

Point of interest, she was already wearing the pink jester costume that she had made infamous during the stunt of carrying the warehouse.

"I thought you burned that?" Miyuki asked looking up and down Klaud's outfit.

"Sapphire did, or I thought she did. Madison's apparently got a whole ware house full of them, being worn by manikins of me!" Klaud stated as she yanked on her jester bells. "This time Madison sowed me into it! Says I'm not allowed to take it off till the day's done!" And then Klaud proceeded to cry into her hands, for the clown hating Klaud, this was like a nightmare.

"Come on Klaud, just... watch the battle board and take your mind off of it." Miyuki stated, encouraging Klaud to look towards the playing field.

Sniffling, Klaud took a look at the game field. In a few short minuets they were off, but something very strange and very dangerous soon happened. The Competitor from seventh high accelerated at the first turn, and ended up getting sent flying from her board and crashed right into Mari. Klaud acted fast, sending the watery card down and used it to catch Mari in a aquatic catcher's mitt before she could hit the ground.

"Someone know what's happening?" Klaud asked looking down at the moat with suspicion.

"Amazing, something weird happens and you completely forget that you're wearing a clown costume." Tatsuya stated, causing Klaud to nearly hit the ground.

"THEN DON'T REMIND ME YOU JERK!"

* * *

The rest of the match proceeded as scheduled, Seventh high who was deemed to be at fault was forced to drop out of the Battle Board Rookie event as compensation. Some had even accused the girl of attacking Mari on purpose, on account of her and Mari being old rivals from last year who nearly tied for first place in the race. Mari on the other hand had three broken ribs from where the girl hit her head on her chest and a broken arm, she would not be competing in any of the next matches. While the officials were quick to dish out blame Tatsuya had other suspicions and he was now making them known.

"We have a saboteur on the loose, someone who is deliberately targeting first high and attempting to botch our chances of victory." Tatsuya explained his hands folded together as he sat in front of a computer in First High's preparations tent.

"I don't suppose that you have any proof of this?" Mari asked, bandaged up and quite clearly not getting the bed rest that she was prescribed.

"The suicide attack on us earlier, the Car was manipulated by magic to smash into the bus." Tatsuya held up a single finger into the air. "The first spell slammed it into the divider," and then a second "The second shot it into the air" and finally a third "And the third then sent it flying towards us. This I believe should come as no surprise, we were already aware that it was a suicide attack from the beginning."

"Painfully aware." Inari stated rubbing his still exceptionally sore shoulder.

"Rather, I believe that the race was sabotaged in the same manner as a start." Tatsuya presented exhibit A, other wise known as the broken CAD of the girl who crashed into Mari. "Her CAD should have had programs installed to turn left, right, slow down, and accelerate. But instead see two accelerate programs and no decelerate. Which makes me think that someone replaced the decelerate program with one for acceleration. And these are the reasons why." Firstly, two simulations of the match, the first what the girl from 7th high should have done and the other what she did do. In the first scenario, she would have decelerated her speed to make the turn, but instead she crashed into Mari. "Last year this girl placed second place very close to Mari who placed first, It's not a stretch to imagine that a clever saboteur would figure this out and take them both out of the competition. Then there's the match itself. The water was behaving abnormally."

"Hello~!" Looking over the entrance of the tent, Sapphire had come in a depressed Klaud who was still sulking, and behind them floated the familiar blue skinned water spirit that governed one sixth of the Clow Cards. "I brought Gloomy Gus here from the moat!"

"Klaud did you guys find anything?" Tatsuya asked, expecting the last piece of evidence he needed to prove his theory.

Klaud on the other hand was still remaining silent, prompting Sapphire to sigh before she continued for her.

"Klaud's still feeling a little down. But with this Card." Sapphire pulled out a card from her breast pocket, the Voice.

"There shan't be a issue." Pressing the card to Klaud's chest, a light was emitted between the two of them, and then she placed the Card into Watery.

"Hmm. Klaud's Voice, this is a new experience to say the least." Watery stated, in a voice that was identical to Klaud's.

"That card can copy people's voices?" Mayumi asked surprised. "Honestly at this point it's more surprising that you can still surprise me Klaud."

"Actually it steals them, but she wasn't using hers at the time so it's alright. But onto business." With this Watery presented what closely resembled a small blue baseball, except that it was made out of water. "This was swimming around the moat earlier today." Watery looked around the room and saw the confusion on those present faces before she decided to properly explain. "Sometimes I forget that you so called magicians can't actually see weak spirits like this. It's a water spirit."

"Okay, so why is that strange? I mean if it's a water spirit then shouldn't it be in water?" Mayumi asked looking at the floating ball of water.

"It isn't. Rather it was under someone else's command. First it grabbed hold of that other girl's board and catapulted her through the air, and then it grabbed hold of your friend and made sure they had a head long collision with each other." Watery explained before she deposited her prisoner into a jug of water. "In any case it can't survive outside of a body of water, it'll be trapped there in case anyone wants it. Now if I'm no longer needed." At once the two cards returned to their regular forms and slid themselves into Klaud's holster.

Klaud it seems was suffering from a itch something fierce, as made evident by her massive compulsion to scratch herself in inappropriate places.

"Klaud are you okay?" Miyuki asked looking over the itchy girl.

"No. I got a itch something awful." Klaud stated as she scratched her behind and her back.

"Maybe it's a rash, perhaps she's allergic to the material that the costume is made out of?" Miyuki pondered while she scratched her Chin.

"Or Maybe it's a psychogenic reaction." Tatsuya stated while he scratched his chin in thought.

"Psuki what now?" Klaud asked as she continued to scratch herself in undignified places.

"In addition to being afraid of clowns, it seems that you're also allergic to them as well." Tatsuya explained while he got out a pair of scissors.

"Well this is the longest that Klaud's ever worn one of Madison's costumes." Sapphire pondered while she scratched her chin.

"That's a thing?" While Klaud confusedly pondered this conundrum Tatsuya aimed down her neck line with the scissors. "Don't even think about it!" Klaud fearfully slapped the scissors out of Tatsuya's hand. "Do you know what Madison did to me the last time I tore up one of her costumes!?" A visible shiver went down Klaud's spine at the thought. "I'll take the damn rash!"

"Maybe she's allergic to older sisters. Speaking of which do you know what those three are up to now?" Mayumi asked while she looked at Sapphire and Klaud.

"We met with them after Battle Board, told them Tatsuya's opinion and they went for the hotel bar." Sapphire stated pointing behind her with her thumb.

* * *

Inside the hotel bar however, the three sisters weren't drinking, in fact no one was drinking, this was on account of the fact that everyone was knocked clean out. Everyone that is, bar four exceptions.

"So your sure that he doesn't know anything?" Maylin asked as she used a clothe to whip blood off of a sword.

"Quite. And I do mean he doesn't know anything, our friend here appears to have had the entirety of his brain overwritten and re-purposed as a magical generator, sacrificing his memories, his emotions and any sense of individuality he had." Maylin's Mirror Card explained, taking on the form of a man who, although still alive, had moments earlier both his arms and his legs hacked off by Maylin.

"Then he's useless to us. I say we kill him, dispose of the evidence, clean up the bar, and go find the rest of him stalking about." Maylin explained, as she readied her Erase Card.

"Not so fast sister. Although we do not yet know who someone did this to him and by examining his body we will learn clues as to who, and by extension, who sent him." Rebecca explained as she examined the contents of a abandoned glass.

"Fine!" Using her Time Card Maylin restored the man's body to peak perfection.

Although he was quick to attack the two in front of him he neglected Madison who was behind him, who grabbed him by his neck and with a single twist a loud snap echoed throughout the room.

"My, my these 'generators' certainly are tough, I had to work a bit there before I got a satisfying snap." Using strength that bellied her small frame Madison picked the Man up and slung him over her shoulder. "I'll take him somewhere Rebecca can examine him, don't drink all the good stuff Sis~!"

"Don't count on it." Rebecca stated before she downed the contents of the glass.

"Honestly you three!" Turning around, the trio was met with a familiar sight. "You can't go anywhere without making a scene now can you?"

"""Good Morning Mother!""" The three sisters replied giving a salute.

"Good Morning Maylin, Rebecca, Madison." Sakura Kinomoto replied, followed shortly behind by a white haired man in a butler's uniform and a griffin with silver colored ornaments. "Now, before you three fly off and kill anyone else. Allow me to introduce you to some associates of mine." Waving her hand, Sakura drew the trio's attention to two women, identical in every respect from their Black hair, purple eyes, fully matured charm and beauty and most important of all, a clear resemblance to a certain younger sister. "Allow to reintroduce my former pupils, Maya Yotsuba and her twin sister Miyu Shiba." The two sisters gave a short courtsy to the stunned Kinomoto sisters.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: I'm taking what you call artistic liberties, if all goes according to plan Scorched Halloween will have happened ten years earlier Klaud at the helm instead of Tatsuya. Don't worry though, I still plan on featuring the events of the original Scorched Halloween, it just won't be called that.

Hornofdesolation: As I said I'm taking artistic liberties, largely because I can't remember all the names, and I'm too lazy to look them all up.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note** : Can't think of anything to say this morning, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 16: Magical Physical Education: Pillar Break

This was awkward. On one end of a rather sizable table in the bar was the Kinomoto sisters Maylin, Rebecca and Madison and on the other were the Yotsuba siblings the head of the family Maya and her twin sister Miyu. And sitting between them as if to keep them from killing each other was Sakura Kinomoto. The three sisters might feel content to stay here all day and send the two of them menacing looks, but they had a schedule to keep, featuring things that were more important than the two of them.

"We have things we'd like to do today. Would you two mind telling us your business and leaving us be?" Maylin asked looking at the Yotsuba siblings with blatant suspicion.

"I'm accompanying my sister as she watches her son and daughter participate in the Nine Schools competition." Maya stated as she gestured to Miyu.

"Yes if memory serves you were in rather poor health the last time we saw you. Still suffering from the nose bleeds?" Rebecca asked with just a bit of cruelty in her voice.

Though Rebecca asked that, blood was already streaming down Miyu's lip, to which Madison gave her a napkin.

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry, but, are we really alright in just... sitting down here and talking like this?" Madison asked gesturing to the two sisters.

"Did our last meet really end on such a sour note?" Maya asked looking at the Kinomoto family.

"No." Maylin stated in slightly defeated voice. "Not Sour, but not Sweet either."

"I know that Maya can't thank you three for helping her, but we'll never forget you three helping us to save her." Miyu stated as she lowered the bloodied napkin to the table.

"We had a mutual enemy at the time, nothing more." Rebecca stated as she swirled a toothpick around a glass. "If Dahan went after you, then they'd come after Klaud as well. The five of us, massacred over four thousand people together, in order to give them the subtle hint not to try. But what you did." Rebecca stated holding her razor sharp projectile to the face of Miyu. "I'm a mad scientist, I use Klaud and these two as lab rats, but even I would never do what you did to her." Rebecca stated gesturing to Maya with nothing but a cool burning fury in her eyes.

"My magical ability, 'Mental Structure Interference.' The power to alter a person's mind to achieve a variety of effects. For example, expanding a person's calculation field by sacrificing another portion of the mind, like the emotional or memory centers." Using the napkin, Miyu wiped the tear that was coming out of the corner of her eye. "In order to save my sister from the traumatic experiences that she had suffered through after being kidnapped by the Dahan Government, I destroyed her ability to feel emotion. And if you think me a monster for doing that, then a mere ten years later, I did the same thing to my own son."

"I remember, if memory serves you melted your brain pulling that stunt, by the time Maya found you, your brain had leaked out all over the floor. Then Tatsuya figured out he could use regrowth." Rebecca stated folding her hands together, prompting looks of surprise from both Maya and Miyu.

"Surprised? Klaud loaned your son a large number of her Clow Cards. Time and Erase made note of his shockingly high affinity for them. So high in fact, that they concluded that he wouldn't even need them to perform similar magic." Rebecca stated leveling a glare at the two sisters. "So not only did you break the promise that you made with her and with the three of us, but thanks to your son, you had to live with the consequences of what you did."

"I can't even argue with you. But what would you have done? Our own family hunted, us! They weren't going to leave us alone until Tatsuya was dead! What would you have done if it was Klaud being hunted down like that!?" Miyu snapped, loudly at that.

It was a difficult thing to do, being caught between your family and your children.

"Sister, calm down." Maya stated pulling on Miyu's sleeve and forcing her back into her chair. "We did not come here with the intention of arguing with the three of you. We came here to get our best friends back."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Maylin asked looking at Maya suspiciously.

Towards this end, Maya took out a wooden box and placed it on the table. Opening it, she revealed a singular human finger, a silver ring with a white stone still attached.

"So, you kept your word." Sakura stated as she picked up the finger and examined it. "Naturally, we don't expect you to believe us just because of something like this." Maya stated looking at the finger sadly.

"There's no need. I recognize my brother's wedding ring." Sakura stated holding the ring up for the others to see. "White and round, just like the moon."

"Wait a second. Are you telling us that's Uncle Tori's wedding ring?" Madison asked staring in shock at the severed finger.

"We're sorry. Our family continuously harvested his DNA and would repeatedly randomize it over several generations while keeping key pieces of DNA intact. That Finger is all that's left." Maya stated, nothing short of remorse in her eyes.

Rebecca pulled out her flask and pored two glasses of drink for the Yotsuba siblings before downing a portion of the flask herself.

"Come on, Klaud's Match should be beginning soon." Rebecca stated before she got up from the seat.

* * *

Pillar Break Rookie's division. The rules were simple. Both sides had nine ten foot high stacks of ice, the goal is to smash the enemies ice chunks using whatever means necessary while at the same time protecting your own stacks. Each one of the enemies stacks you completely smashed was worth one point, each one of your stacks that you protected would be worth one point. Whoever had the greater number of points at the end of the ten minuet match would be the winner. On a additional note both competitors were also given the option of a dressing howsoever they pleased. In the past few years the Female's division had turned into a all out fashion show. Miyuki kept her eye on the VIP's division. Maylin, Rebecca and Madison filled in the seats with a few minuets to spare, that was of no surprise. However she was not aware that Sakura was also in attendance.. However rather than being surprised she was shocked when she saw her mother and her aunt Miyu and Maya joining the four of them in the stands. Miyuki tugged on her brother's sleeve and pointed to the stands rather fearfully.

"Hmm. So they're in attendance. Interesting." Tatsuya stated in a voice of cool neutrality before he turned his attention back to the match.

"From Sixth academy, introducing Ino Haruna." With the announcer's declaration, the student from Sixth academy in question rose to the top of one of the two towers that stood at opposite sides of the field, wearing a sporty looking uniform. "And from First academy, introducing Klaud Reed." The crowd cheered when they heard Klaud's name, rising up from the platform was the familiar young woman who had been forcibly dressed as a clown rose to the top platform in a overly dramatic fashion.

Between the two of them, was a huge combination of flat screen TV's, mapping out the field with it's eighteen targets, plastered over that was a three, then a two, and finally a one. With a loud Dong noise the Match had begun, Immediately Klaud threw down one of her Clow Cards on her side, the Shield card, which erected a protective barrier around her side of the field. Normally, in order to keep a Clow card in line the complex releasing ritual involving both twirling the staff about and speaking the incantation to release the card in a controlled manner. However if you built a good relationship with any of the cards, and relayed simple instructions through the transfer of psions, then the end result would be a card that obediently did what it was told. Thus there was now a powerful impenetrable force field around the entire arena. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for all the Clow Cards.

"O great key that hides the power of light," Klaud threw a second card, The Shot Card, into the air before she started to twirll the staff around. "I command thee to draw upon Ancient power, both near and far, to come to my side, discard your previous form and release your true power!" Slamming the head of the staff into the floating card and caused it to explode before reforming into the form of a elf like sprite with fiery red and yellow hair, large pink eyes and jet black clothing. "Shot! Destroy those ice pillars!" Pointing down at the opponent's ice pillars shot bolted after them.

In the span of ten seconds, Shot destroyed first the center pillar, and then the surrounding eight before Klaud recalled it. Thus it the match was declared in favor of Klaud's overwhelming victory. Once the five minuets were up Klaud used the Jump Card to immediately make her way over to the VIP area where her family was waiting for her.

"Get me out of this thing!" Klaud barked squatting directly in front of Madison.

Thirty Minuets later Madison had completely removed every single stitch that impeded her ability to remove the costume that she was trapped in.

"Ugh...!" Freed of the costume Klaud proceed to directly itch herself with her finger nails. "Why am I still itchy!? I thought this Psycho whatever was suppose to wear off after I got out of that costume!?"

"You must have had a bad reaction to the Urushiol oil I put into the lining." Madison stated as she folded the costume up.

"Urushiol? What kind of oil is that?" Klaud asked as she continued to scratch herself.

"Let's see here, that would the extract from Poison Ivy I believe." That made Klaud freeze, as realization slowly dawned on her. "Frankly I have no idea how that happened, I mean it's not like you told someone to burn the nice outfit I made for you." Klaud was in trouble, she was in really deep trouble. "It was one of the nicer ones too, made almost completely of spider silk and graphene rendering you almost completely invulnerable." Which means that by stitching her into it she was made effectively invulnerable to any more suicide attacks by the people targeting first high.

"Sorry for trying to burn your things Madison." Klaud stated in a defeated and deeply apologetic tone.

"Good girl. Now than..." Madison handed Klaud a bottle of pink liquid and a fresh change of clothes. "Go get changed Klaud, we can talk with the others when we're done."

Klaud took the items given to her and quickly ran to the nearest changing room.

"For people who love your sister so much, you abuse her a lot." Maya stated as she entered the room.

"I know, we're horrible. All three of us deserve what ever horrible fate is waiting for us. But if Klaud isn't strong enough to survive what's chasing after her. Then there's nothing that we can do to help her." Madison stated with a sad tone of voice.

"Those burdened by overwhelming power are also burdened with great responsibility and a long list of enemies. That's what we and Miyu learned after Tatsuya was born. We had to make another 'monster' just like him just so that we could use the two of them to cancel each other out. That was our 'magical' solution to the problem. Your family on the other hand went looking for a non magical solution, that was as a consequence a lot bloodier." Maya stated as she scratched her chin. "Personally. I don't know whose burden is greater, Tatsuya who carries the destiny of becoming a God of Destruction. Or Klaud who carries the Destiny of the God of Madness."

"We can only believe in Klaud who we've put our hopes into and continue to support her. That is the only option that has been left to the three of us." Madison replied smiling bitterly.

"Speaking of sisters, I better go look after mine before she tries to kill herself again." Maya stated leaving the room.

"I better go with you, if memory serves she's with my sisters right now and I can't see them doing anything but make the problem worst." Madison stated letting a exasperated sigh.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Enigma95: That is a shame, it really is assuming that you are reading this. I know that including Maya and Miyu in this may seem sudden but I had good reason. Firstly I want to show that Miyu is still alive, because she was saved using Tatsuya's regrowth. And the reason why I included her, well I felt sorry for Tatsuya for only having Miyuki in his life. But if the story is no longer enjoyable for you then you shouldn't read it, that is my opinion.

Duked: Yes I suppose it was, but promising to return Torii's wedding ring does go a long way to patch relationships, and Sakura's grudge is with the Fourth Magical Lab who carved him to pieces, not the Yotsuba's who were born as a consequence. Remember that Maya and Miyu are technically Tori's Great Grand Daughters.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note** : Don't really got anything to say this week other than to say Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 17: Magical Physical Education: Speed Shooter

Inside of the hotel bar. The sound of crying echoed throughout the room. The cause of this was Miyu, who was drinking heavily in a overly depressed tone. On either side of her was Maylin and Rebecca, both looking somewhat annoyed with the drunken depressed woman.

"Every time I see him _snuff_ every single time I see him he gives me that look!" Miyu downed the contents of another shot glass. "'I know what you did to me! It's your fault that I'm like this!' And Maya, she gives me that look too, all the time!" With a loud thunk Miyu's smacked her face into the counter while she continued to cry. "I'm a horrible mother! A horrible sister! Tatsuya should've just let me die!" Maylin pored the contents of a empty bottle into Miyu's glass.

A little trick she learned from Klaud after one of Rebecca's drinking binges, get them drunk enough and they can't tell the difference between air and booze.

"Thanks Maylin, you're my best friend! To the next Generation!" Miyu raised her empty glass and downed it's imaginary contents before slamming it back down.

"There you two are!" Looking over to the side the three drinkers saw Maya and Madison walking over to them. "Come on, we gotta get going!"

"What about her?" Maylin asked pointing at the drunken Mrs. Shiba.

"Bring her with us." Rebecca stated as she finished her drink and got up to leave, Maylin carrying Miyu leaving with her.

* * *

Tatsuya was sitting in front of a computer, working on C.A.D. Calibration. That was what he told his associates, but the truth was that he had finished calibrating all three of the C.A.D.'s for the upcoming Speed Shooter round five minuets ago. Right now he was watching Miyuki's recorded match for the Pillar Break rookies division. Like Klaud before her, it was Miyuki's overwhelming victory. Using her magic Inferno she sucked every drop of heat out of her area and pumped it into the enemies blocks, defending her own and melting the opponents. Another reason for his seemingly lazy approach was that by doing so he was also training and allowing the other C.A.D. Technicians to improve their skills who had already observed him earlier and already received instruction on superior C.A.D. calibration.

"Tatsuya." Mayumi walked up behind Tatsuya wearing her undergarments, after all it was her C.A.D. being tuned right now. "Keeping me waiting on the table just so that you can see me in my underwear, how perverted are..." And then she saw what he was really watching, Miyuki match. "Damn you sis-con! Making me think you just wanted to see me in this state of undress!"

"I believe this is yours." Ignoring Mayumi's frustration Tatsuya handed her a green colored jumpsuit with two hand-gun C.A.D. the Silver Horn Model.

" _Not even a second look! Is he gay or just completely unflappable!?_ " Mayumi quickly got dressed, afterwards she picked up the C.A.D. and was about to holster it, only to freeze up all of a sudden.

" _This C.A.D... It's compatibility with me._ " Somewhat fearfully, Mayumi looked over to Tatsuya who had gone back to working on the computer.

* * *

The name of the game was Speed Shooter, best summarized as a round of Clay Pidgeons on steroids. Two separate launchers fire disks of different colors into the scoring area in the middle of the field, one for each color of the participants. The greatest number of the corresponding disks destroyed, the greater the points scored, one hundred disks between them. Both Miyuki and her Opponent from Fifth high were lined up on the shooting platform both with their weapons of choice lined up. Everyone's attention was on the large screen arrangement, which had both contestants as well as their scores on it. After three loud dongs echoed throughout the arena, the game began. Using one C.A.D. Mayumi shot the white disks of First High, causing them to smash into each other, with the other one she shot at the blue disks of fifth high, keeping them from entering the scoring area. Poor girl was spectacularly massacred.

"Glad that went off without a hitch."

* * *

During lunch that day, the first high competitors and their engineers were enjoying their meal, but dining separately from them was a private group consisting of the Kinomoto family, the Yotsuba family, and the three pillars of first high.

"So you are Tatsuya's mother?" Mayumi asked in a suspicious tone of voice pointing at Miyu, before going over to Maya. "You are her sister, and the head of the Yotsuba clan." Before finally resting on Sakura. "And you are their great grand aunt and Klaud's mother?"

"Basically yes." Sakura replied while she ate a egg-roll. "I'm sorry but I don't..." Mayumi stated a suspicious and slightly amused look on her face.

"Believe it." Tatsuya threw a picture onto the table, Sakura when she was a child. "The film in that photograph is over a hundred years old, she has the exact same scar on her chin as Sakura."

"Assuming that you're right... how?" Mayumi asked confused.

"Have you ever heard of Regrowth?" Rebecca asked while she mixed together her rice and the sauce she put on top of it. "It's extremely high level magic that is used to replace the existing Eidos of a object with an older version. For example, if a statue gets broken, you can use regrowth on it and fix it. Of course it has limits, it can't access a copy of Eidos that is any older than twenty four hours old. For this reason it's impossible to use it say for example restoring an antique." Rebecca ate a fork full of rice before she continued. "However, if you continuously used it on yourself, every day at the same time, then in theory, from a biological perspective, you would relive the exact same day everyday. Well even though I say that it's still a voluntary process."

"Even if a high level magic like that existed, to use it every single day, the strain that it would put on your body and brain." Mayumi stated a little bit startled at the existence of such a miraculous magic.

"What strain? Your body would be restored exactly as it was the day before, that doesn't just include the body but the brain as well. Well even though we say that unlike you stupid people we don't keep magic in our brains we put em into these." Rebecca stated holding up the Time Card.

"The Time Card? So then a powerful magic like that does exist after all!?" Mayumi stated startled at the sudden realization.

"Hmm. This family really is dangerous." Katsuho stated crossing his arms as he entered deep thought.

"Oi Klaud!" Suddenly the very angry and still heavily bandaged Mari slammed her remaining good fist down on the table as she stood up. "You had a convenient magic like that all this time and did nothing about it!?" Then using that same arm that nearly cracked the table Mari pointed out the numerous injuries she suffered the day before. "I could've won Battle Board with a ability like that!"

"Mari stop being noisy!" Tatsuya scolded harshly before he ate a chicken ball.

"Excuse me!?" Mari snapped back in a surprised tone.

"Yes Klaud could easily repair all of your injuries with a power like that. But have you considered the consequences? We already know that First High is being targeted by a unknown group of people. For all we know they're the members of a foreign government trying to take out as many promising magicians as they can. What do you think they would do if they found out that Klaud here has a large number of powerful spells like that that almost anyone could use hmm?" Tatsuya explained leveling a glare at Mari. "Don't get me wrong, if you had been killed, and maybe even crippled for a extended period, then I have no doubt that she would have utilized the spell to repair your injuries. But a petty highschool competition is not worth risking her life, or those cards falling into the hands of a foreign power."

"Actually I just forgot." The group's attention turned to Klaud. "There's a lot of cards, and I can't recall all of their powers on the fly you know, even the really useful ones."

"Ugh this useless girl..." Mari sighed as she slammed her head on the table. "Why couldn't I have gone to school with Rebecca!?"

"Well I was just lucky that those guys didn't try anything during my match." Mayumi stated smiling as she took her drink.

"They did." Maylin placed a empty looking jar on the counter. Even though there appeared to be nothing inside the jar was shaking something awfully fierce, implying something was inside trying to get out. "A air spirit someone planted in the disk launcher, presumably they intended to have it go awry."

"It makes sense, Mayumi, Mari and Katsuho are considered three of the strongest mages of their generation. Though in that regard, I wonder why Klaud who has her familiars and cards wasn't targeted as well?" Tatsuya asked while he looked at Klaud.

"Well even if she is a overnight celebrity she's still a huge pile of unknown factors that doesn't use a C.A.D. so their established tactics might not work on her. It's not a matter of 'she's not one of their targets' but rather 'they don't know how to target her yet.'" Maylin explained folding her hands and resting her chin on them. "As a consequence, we've already taken the liberty of signing Klaud of up for every rookie event for the entire competition."

A loud Clink sound echoed throughout the room as a Massively stunned Klaud's fork hit her plate.

"I can't wait to get started!" Madison gushed with a clear blush on her face. "So many outfits for Klaud, I'll need one that's water proofed for Battle Board, lightweight and agile for Mirage Bat, strong and durable for Monolith Code..."

"Is she allowed to sign up for Monolith Code? If memory serves only male participants have been allowed to participate in the past." Maylin asked as she scratched her cheek.

"Well when you told me to hack into the computers and sign her up for all the rookie events I did." Rebecca stated as she continued to eat her food. "Since Klaud is a foreigner's name they might not have realized she's a girl yet. But with all the attention she's getting right now if they kick her out because of a reason like that then it'll be like lighting the fuse on a bomb."

"Then that settles it. Klaud is going to participate." Sakura stated rather happily, before that is she noticed Klaud just staring forward with her mouth open. "Klaud you aren't catching flies sweetie close your mouth." Rather than closing her mouth, Klaud simply fainted.

* * *

While Klaud was unconscious Madison redressed her in a costume which resembled a green version of her gesture outfit, it had long tail coats and yellow shorts, on the shoulders and front chest area there were the white flowers of the First High Academy. It was simple for Madison, and although Klaud questioned whether or not it was within the rules of the competition she has learned by now that Madison is going to do whatever she wants and not give a damn about the consequences. Some person that Klaud was too depressed to take note of their name or school entered the playing area. Klaud decided just to get it over with and summoned Windy.

"I'm too tired to deal with this today, just smash all the white ones as they enter that magic cube over there and keep all the other ones out." Klaud stated slumped over. Windy held her hand over Klaud's forehead to check her temperature, trying to figure out if she was sick or not. Then she saw the outfit. "Just, don't drag out this hell any longer than you have to." With three dongs the slaughter began, Windy manipulated the air currents to smash all of Klaud's disks within the scoring area, at the same time she collected all of the opponents disks and neatly stacked them on the ground.

"Oh come on! That's so not fair!" The opponent snapped pointing accusingly at Klaud. "You're not even using a C.A.D? What kind of magician doesn't even use a C.A.D!? This has got to be against the rules!"

"The rules say use magic, not use a C.A.D. Go blow your smoke up someone else's hole, I've got more important things to deal with than you!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.

Duked: As I mentioned before, the issue here is not that the two family's don't get along, there's just history between the two, some good and some bad. But you may also remember that Sakura has gone out of her way to get Klaud Tatsuya and Miyuki to get along with each other. There's not an alliance, not yet, but they're working on it.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note** : Important Announcement, My life right now is shit, and as such my ability to write is going to be null for a while, so the likely hood that I'm going to be able to post another chapter next week is going to be little. So, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 18: Competitive Magical Strategy

Now that everyone knew that the Battle Board course wasn't sabotaged The Rookie event could proceed as it was originally planned. This year first high had two competitors competing. Klaud and Honoka, a first year and acquaintance of Tatsuya's. Perhaps that was the reason why Tatsuya was here instead of at the Speed Shooter Rookie event helping its other competitor Shizuka out like he was suppose to be doing.

"I-I-I'd feel a lot better about this if you were my engineer Tatsuya." The brown haired and large breasted first year in question stated shyly.

"Isn't that kinda rude to Azusa?" Tatsuya asked gesturing to the young girl to whom he had been personally mentoring.

"That isn't what I..." Honoka replied a sudden look of remorse all over her features.

"It's alright Honoka, Tatsuya is master while I'm the student." Azusa stated a bright look on her features.

"So long as your feeling remorse, I can work on your strategy with you." Tatsuya stated, prompting the two girls to don a look of confusion on their features.

* * *

Honoka lined up on the starting line for the first round, there beside her was none other than Klaud in the latest of her sister's clown outfits. This one was a blue swim suit, with a jester's skirt and a jester themed bathing cap. She looked depressed as ever, making a Coulrophobe wear a jester costume was beyond the point of cruel. To make her wear several in one day was unimaginably horrible. On the bright side though the monster that had been demolishing the rookie events one after another had finally met her match, the Monstrous magical engineer named Tatsuya who has also been demolishing the rookie events was on her side now.

"3... 2... 1..."

And they were off, or more accurately, the two of them were off. The Moment that the final ding rung Honoka cast a powerful light spell on the water which then reflected that blast of light and blinded her fellow competitors. But she wasn't the only one who had cast magic right out of the gate. Klaud had thrown down one of her cards into the water, and now there were a tidal wave pushing her forward.

"How...?" Try as she might, Honoka could not even catch up to Klaud, the water was pushing back on her even harder, a direct side effect of whatever card Klaud was using this time, but hope was not lost yet. A sudden explosion of psions beneath Honoka's board sent her flying through the air, sailed over the wave, and landed safely on the other side.

" _Thank-you, A-Chan._ " Now Honoka was standing face to face with Klaud, and she knew it, so she decided to switch tactics.

With a simple flick of her wrist the Wave Card shot up from the water and into Klaud's hand, and replacing that in the water was 'the Ice.' Suddenly the water up a head froze, Honoka had to make some last minuet maneuvers to avoid getting frozen herself, and as a result Klaud was in front of her again. More accurately though she was sitting down on her board while it glided along the surface of the ice.

" _Wave, ice. According to Tatsuya Klaud only has nine cards that work on water, that just leaves, bubbles, rain, snow, cloud, mist, wood and of course water. So I just gotta keep on my edge._ "

Once Klaud had cleared the ice field, she threw another card under the ice, the ice broke up under Honoka's feet and she nearly went into the water, but a cloud of psions she sent into the water pushed her back above the surface. Klaud threw the Wave card into the water, making it move faster and pushing on Honoka and the others harder, at the same time she used the speed card on her own board making her go faster. After a long hard fought battle Klaud was nearing the final lap of the course and Honoka was right behind her, after a long fought battle Klaud threw several cards into the water at once and appeared to trip up and crash into the water, and Honoka sped into the finishing line, before turning back around to get Klaud.

"Klaud are you Okay!?" Honoka reached into the water to get Klaud, but as soon as her hand touched the water the scalding hot liquid forced her back. "OW! Why's the water boiling?" A few feet away from Honoka, the answer presented herself, Klaud whose entire body was lit up with several bright red glowing lines.

"Brother! Are those..." Miyuki asked fearfully looking at Klaud.

"She tried to use too many cards at once!" Tatsuya stated looking at the situation angrily.

Klaud took a deep breath before she dived back under the water, then she used ice to freeze the water with her in it. At least she wasn't burning up any more. In the break area Klaud who had nearly frozen herself solid was now suffering from a rather nasty cold. Rebecca had prepared one of her mad concoctions and Klaud was now drinking it.

"Would you mind telling me what exactly happened there?" Maylin asked as she paced back and forth in front of Klaud who was wrapped in a towel. "Because I specifically remember telling you not to push yourself so that you would not end up as a smoldering pile of Ash!"

"Jeez." Klaud let out a loud snuff as she looked angrily at Maylin. "Maybe I'm not thinking straight because I've been wrapped in a blanket of nightmares all day long!"

"Do not!" Suddenly Maylin held Klaud by her chin and looked her in the eyes. "Take that attitude with me!"

"Oh really? What's the worst that you can do to me? Make Madison stitch me into a clown costume all day long!?" Klaud asked as she gestured to her body which still had been thoroughly clowned.

"That's enough!" Everyone looked to their side and saw Sakura, Klaud's mother, walk into the tent, glowering at her daughters. "Everyone, I need to have a nice, long, chat with my daughter. Leave. Now!" With that all of first high's competitors left the tent, leaving only the members of the Kinomoto family present. "I said, Everyone!" Sakura stated in a un-amused tone of voice aimed at her three eldest daughters.

"I got some circuit boards I need to solder anyway." Rebecca stated as she left the room.

"I think I need to go clean my room anyway." Madison replied following Rebecca.

"I'll be outside if you need anything." Maylin stated and she left the room.

Once the three had left Cerberus and Yue took their roles as guards and Klaud and her mother had much needed alone time. Before Klaud could ask any questions, Sakura suddenly hugged her.

"I'm sorry Klaud, I'm so, so Sorry!" Sakura cried into Klaud's shoulder, calming down the angry daughter as she didn't know how to handle this situation.

"Hey come on mom, don't be like that. It's not your fault we're all jerks. I gotta get changed anyway." Sakura helped Klaud, who's newly burnt skin was extra sensitive, get out of her swim wear and put on the burn cream to help her heal her burn scars.

"Klaud, the costumes... they were my idea." Sakura admitted in a guilty voice.

"They were?" Klaud replied shock.

"Do you know what happens to your body when you get scared? Your heart starts pumping faster, allowing you brief feats of super human strength and speed, your senses become heightened, making you more aware of your surroundings. In layman's terms, when you become scared, you become the most powerful version of you."

"The most powerful version of me is a clown? Somehow that sounds scarier then the costumes. But why is this necessary at all? Why do I have to be 'The most powerful version of me?'" Klaud asked looking confused and somewhat hurt.

"Because I know you." Klaud only grew more confused the more her mother talked. "If you're friends are in danger, you want to be in danger with them, protect them, keep them safe from whatever is threatening them no matter what." Sakura laughed a little before she continued. "Ever since you were a child the easiest way to make you not want to do something was to put it in a clown costume. So then the easiest way to keep you safe was to dress danger as a clown. Hate me for it if you will, but if you do what you intend to do, then you will do so under my rules."

"So everything else, Maylin's obstacle courses, Rebecca's experiments, Madison's bloody hug pillow? Was all of that your idea too?" Klaud asked a bit of anger in her tone.

"Do you know why Maylin puts you through such harsh training?" Klaud shook her head. "Why Rebecca drinks?" Again Klaud shook her head. "Why Madison dresses you up those stupid outfits?"

"If I know these things then I would make them stop!"

"'If he knew how to swim I wouldn't have lost him.' When Maylin was a child she had a dog, but he drowned in a river because he didn't know how to swim. So ever since then she has had the thought 'if they know how to be stronger then everything else then I won't have to lose them again.' With Rebecca, she's depressed, a life time ago she saw something horrible, so now she tries to break everything she sees down to numbers and formula's and information to try and kill her emotions, and when that didn't work she resorts to the world's oldest medicine. Understand something Klaud, Rebecca has never once experimented on you, everything she has ever done to you is a tried and proven method to make a person stronger, all for your sake and your sake alone. With Madison, well..." Sakura laughed finding this one particularly amusing. "She's certainly the most vocal about her emotions, because she has this bad habit of getting a bit too overly attached to positive results. And you are positive results Klaud, make no mistake about it. What is done to you is no fault of your own. You are not being punished, and they are not trying to hurt you. But if you want them to stop, then you are the only one who can make them stop."

"Mom..." Klaud took a deep breath, looking like she was about to yell. "I could use someone to help me with these burns."

* * *

Tatsuya was sitting at this laptop inputting the final lines of code on the latest of his pet projects. It was unimpressive looking at first glance, simply resembling a large rectangular block of metal. But when it came to Tatsuya, things were rarely unimpressive. His work however was interrupted by the sound of knocking on his door. Opening said door, Tatsuya was greeted by the sight of his younger sister Miyuki.

"May I come in brother?" Tatsuya stepped aside allowing Miyuki inside, immediately she went for the contraption that was on his desk. "Is this the C.A.D. That four leaves sent over?" Miyuki started to examine the contraption and noticed a hole on the side of it. Testing her hunch she started to feel around and found a switch and flipping it the metal block turned into a rifle. "A gun type?"

"A two type." Tatsuya stated raising one finger as if objecting to what Miyuki had said.

"'A two type?'" Miyuki echoed a bit curious.

"Basically. This is a case of two different kinds of C.A.D.s being rolled into one, here let me show you." Receiving the C.A.D. from Miyuki, Tatsuya flipped the switch again, this time it took the form of a large flat club, but when Tatsuya added some psions, that club split in two the lion's share floating into the air high off the ground. "Mode one is storage. Mode two is long distance, mode three is a mid to short range weapon." Basically this was anchoring magic, two objects being connected together at a fixed distance, when one moved, the other moved as well, but by treating the distance as a variable the distance apart could be adjusted. Essentially, what Tatsuya has created here, was a floating remote controlled gun. "And that is only the tip of the ice berg I've got to share with you this evening."

"What do you mean?" Miyuki asked looking rather confused.

"Here Let me show you." The C.A.D. reassembled itself and Tatsuya tossed it out on the bed, then he went to his computer. "Rebecca finished a autopsy on someone they caught sabotaging one of the machines for the games, as a start his brain is well and truly fried, like someone completely rewrote it and turned it into one big calculating area, like what they did with mine but not as extreme. He had a layer of sub dermal Graphene armor too, expensive as hell, but it makes yah all kinds of proof, fire, bullet, stabbing, bludgeoning..."

"Like that guy that Inari fought? So they are related." Miyuki deduced while she held her chin in her hand.

"Another thing. Before he was a walking magic tank he was some no named brute from China by the name of Dan Xiao Long, was executed three month's ago in some hole in Korea." Tatsuya explained while he looked at the picture of the man in question.

"Does executed mean something different in China than it does here?" Miyuki asked confusedly.

"The execution business in China has always been sketchy, it use to be that they'd carve out your organs and put em in some rich guy, now a days it seems that China's a little short on the pumped up magical weapon area so they're making up for lost time. Not only that, but the one that attacked us on the bus. Got hired right out of highschool at some magical firm and no one ever saw from him again. According to Madison the firm is a front for a criminal gang based out of Hong Kong. Calls themselves the No-Head Dragon." Tatsuya stated leaning back in the chair while he looked at the screen.

"They don't got a head, or a leader I should say?" Miyuki asked looking at the name with a fair amount of surprise.

"They've got one alright, might as well be that air spirit Maylin's got in that jar for all we know though. Except that considering no one's been assassinated yet nor has anything been stolen our little dragons are the most obvious suspects." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin. "It makes sense, the magical sports business is plastered with sketchy characters and illegal gambling."

"So, the real question here is, what are we going to do about them?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

Duked: Think of that little conversation as the simplest version of the story. What Sapphire said was her venting her anger at what happened to Toya, the Yotsuba clan was made by the fourth magical laboratory, and now the fourth magical laboratory is controlled by the Yotsuba clan. Yes The Yotsuba clan are the biological relatives of the Kinomoto's through the clones of Toya, so that does make the sisters Sakura's great, great grand nieces. Also, double check your grammar before you post a review please, as it's confusing to try and figure out what you're saying.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's note** : My life is still shit and not expected to get any better any time soon. Even though I say that I might not get the next chapter done by next week that's usually not the case. So all I can say is wait and see.

* * *

Chapter 19: Magical Physical Education: Illegal Gambling

Inside of a darkened room, A group of men were having a meeting around a table.

"This is bad. we underestimated the rookie competitors. Even though the Rookie events are only worth half of the main events, we didn't expect them to win every match they participate in."

"Not to mention... that monster's younger sister." One of the men at the table turned their attention quite fearfully to one of the men who guarded the door.

One of the 'generators' named so for two reasons: The first is that they were remade to produce exceptionally vast quantities of Psions and Pushions and have a vastly enlarged calculative area for the purpose of utilizing powerful high level magical spells. The second was that in the process of doing so they had been stripped of all memories, emotions and sense of individuality leaving behind only a drone, capable of making tactical decisions and following orders, like a machine. A process that was created and patented by one Rebecca Kinomoto.

"I don't want to end up like that!"

They were in a tight spot, if they proceeded with what they were doing, then they would face the wrath of the Kinomoto sisters. But if they didn't and first high won the Nine School's competition then they would lose a vast amount of profit that would otherwise be won and in the process face the wrath of their employers in Hong Kong. Neither party were particularly well known for simply killing the people who have provoked their wrath. Many of them ended up like the soulless drones that stood guard for them right now, filling both the roles of protection, and intimidation, a reminder of what fate awaits those who displeases them.

"Then we have no other choice, but to eliminate the sisters alongside our opposition."

* * *

That night, after a long day dominating the nine School competition, First High was celebrating in a private room.

"Cheers to Tatsuya Shiba, without whose aid a great many matches would have been lost today." To Mayumi's declaration, Tatsuya stepped forward and bowed to the crowd.

Basically, thanks to Tatsuya's respective strategies and technical support, Shizuka and Honoka won both of their matches. In the case of Honoka, for the second round Tatsuya proposed a strategy to use illusion magic to extend the shadows of the walls that surrounded the moat. Nothing major it just made the course darker, except that since all the other competitors were already cautious of Honoka's previous use of light magic to stun them, they were using shaded goggles, and as a result the shaded in parts of the course looked like dark walls, and thus took a unnecessarily long route around the moat, securing Honoka's victory. In the case of Shizuka, she utilized a innovative magic called Air mine that Tatsuya created. Basically, the C.A.D. that Tatsuya tuned for Shizuka had placed nine points within the scoring area, one at each corner of the scoring area, and one in the center. Each of the points could create a pulse that would destroy anything caught in their path, all that had to be done was input the corresponding number.

"And to our Ace Klaud Reed, without whom a great many matches would have been lost today!" Klaud this time stepped forward and bowed her head.

"I know that my match would've gone differently if I had Tatsuya as my engineer." One of the 2nd year students stated in a depressed tone of voice.

"Ha! My Kei is gonna steal all of his secrets and become ten times the engineer he could ever be!" A purple haired student named Kanon Chiyoda stated making a sort of, 'evil villain' laugh.

"I look forward to it." Tatsuya stated clinking his glass with Kanon.

"Damn it!" While the others were celebrating, one was not. Shun Morisaki, and he was not happy. The Prideful student who was told that he was someone special, one of the chosen elite of the most elite school that prided itself on having the best magicians, was getting shown up by a pair of weeds of all people. "Oi you two!" Shun walked up to his two teammates from his Monolith code team looking like he was ready to kill someone. "We are winning Monolith Code tomorrow, no weeds, end of discussion!"

* * *

The Rules of Monolith code were simple. Three on three Matches set Large scale battle arena, set in a variety of areas, including urban, forest, open fields ETC there were two ways to win. First was to take down all the enemy combatants without the use of lethal spells, and the second is the titular Monolith Code, find the enemy monolith, shoot it, and punch in a hundred digit code.

That was the general idea, except that the saboteurs struck again, hard. As in collapse a building on top of Shun's and his two cohorts heads hard. True Klaud was not technically part of the team on account of only being the spare, and hence was not in the line of fire for this occasion. Only now it was up to her to put the new team together, as was being explained to her by the three pillars of first high.

"So as I understand it, I have to put together a new team, consisting of males aside from me, currently from First High's First years who are already here. And we have to win." Klaud stated, listing points off of her finger tips with a increasingly suspicious look of disbelief.

"Well, Winning would be nice, but yes, that is the general idea." Katsuho stated crossing his arms.

"You can't just put a team together over night and expect them to kick butt! For starters the only male first years that I know well enough to put them on a team with me are Leo and Tatsuya!" An exasperated Klaud shouted rubbing on her temples at the headache inducing situation.

"Well that situation settled itself." Mayumi stated as she got up for the door.

"Guess we don't have much of a choice here." Mari sighed as she was helped out to the door by Katsuho.

"Wait, wha!?"

* * *

Klaud called a meeting with her two would be teammates Tatsuya and Leohart and was explaining the situation to them.

"So you somehow got us roped into participating in Monolith code without even asking us first?" Tatsuya asked something that might be mistaken for anger in his voice.

"Sounds a great deal like fun actually." Leo stated a smirk on his features showing that he wasn't against the idea. "Well even though I say that, if it's the master strategist Tatsuya and the monster Klaud as my partners, I really don't think I can stack up."

"Don't sell yourself short, history shows that proven, reliable and hard hitting tactics and weaponry are far more effective than new and advanced technological weaponry. And you have proved both your reliability and your hard hitting effectiveness. If you need something new though, I got something for you."

* * *

Later that night, Tatsuya led Leohart and Klaud into the garden that wasn't too far away from the hotel. Klaud used the Wood Card to make some dummies, and Leo used the newly invented duel C.A.D. to smash them from over ten feet away.

"Wow, this thing is awesome! But is it legal, from what I heard melee combat is illegal in Monolith Code." Leo stated as he raised a fairly good point, brandishing the weapon which was clearly a melee weapon.

"Not Necessarily. The Rules are that you cannot use a melee weapon, but they have nothing against using magic to launch a chunk of metal at your opponents." Tatsuya explained as he brought up a video on his phone. "If they did, then this would be a violation." It was another match, this one had one of the students using magic to launch a huge boulder at his opponent.

"But what would happen if I used it just as?" Leo asked raising the C.A.D. in it's inactive state to show what he meant.

"Ah guys, I'm sure that this debate is fascinating and important and all that, but perhaps we should deal with that first." A black, license plate gone, van, tinted windows, people coming out through the back with guns, that is what Klaud was pointing out right now.

* * *

The capture of the intruders was short but effective, thanks to the shadow card. Tatsuya took the liberty of having some choice words with them before they were handed over to the capable hands of Maylin.

"They are indeed members of the No-Head Dragon. It would seem that they were here to assassinate the competitors from First High." Tatsuya was speaking with barely contained fury, which was understandable considering the fact that his precious little sister was among their targets.

"Looks like they've stopped pretending to be subtle. We're gonna have to be on our toes for now on." Klaud stated drinking from a bottle of juice. "So then, who wants to see if the 'No Head Dragons' really are headless?"

* * *

While Klaud and her team were having a strategy meeting for the up coming games they failed to realize that another team was having a similar meeting about them.

"It seems that Klaud Reed is still sweeping the Rookie events, with the exception of the recent Fiasco of Battle Board, in which she unexpectedly tripped up at the end." Shinkurou Kichijouji, George to his friends, read the notes concerning Third High's Main Competition First High.

"She certainly is something isn't she?" Ichijou stated looking out the window.

"It's not like you to fall head over heels for someone Ichijou." George replied bringing up the picture of Klaud on his tablet.

"'Love at First Sight' is a myth George, a fairy tale conceived to simplify for children what is meant to be a prolonged and engaging process taking place over a period of time. No, what this is called is a simple boyhood crush. On the subject of first high, our opponents in the Rookie Events were taken out, who they brought in to replace them?" Ichijou asked smirking at the second half of the Hotel across the yard, where the female competitors were staying for the competition.

"Their resident strategist Tatsuya Shiba, some no name brute Leohart Saijou and... Klaud Reed." George stated a little bit surprised.

"Klaud? I thought that girls weren't allowed to compete in Monolith code." Ichijou asked surprised.

"Last year it was, but the most recently updated rule book says it isn't." George explained holding up a digital copy of the book in question on his tablet. "When they asked the tournament officials about it they weren't aware of it. It would seem that they have a hacker in their midst. Klaud's name was already on the roster from before Shun and the other two were taken out." George stated rubbing his chin.

"That magic engineer is certainly more than capable of doing the deed himself, well played, master strategist of First High." Ichijou stated a smirk on his face. Ichijou grabbed a nearby glass filled with red liquid and raised it into the air. "To tomorrow's slaughter."

And a slaughter it was, all day the next day the teams of the nine school's competed relatively evenly in Monolith code, except that is, two teams of monsters that were tearing through the ranks. The Third High Team led by Cardinal George and Crimson Prince Ichijou were making expert use of air magic to manipulate and eliminate their competition. The First High Team on the other hand went in understanding that they had two opponents for every match, the first whatever team they were taking apart for the match, and the second the Saboteurs of the No-Head Dragons. Bombs, faulty equipment, poisoned gas, these and others were the hurdles that the team from first High had to over come, and they did so with a great deal of room to spare.

Finally, it was well into the evening, and the last Two Teams standing for the Monolith Code Rookie event was First High, and Third high.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so, it's very comforting. I hope to continue to live up to your standards.


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note** : My life is improving FYI, I went to see a doctor, I got some medication, and it's easier to write right now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 20: Magical Physical Education: Monolith Code

The Final event, in the Monolith Code Rookie events, The long awaited match between Third High and First High, taking place in the open fields. Both sides appeared to have come prepared, or perhaps over prepared would be the better term in the case of Cardinal George, who had brought to the fight no less than three C.A.D.'s, goggles, sniper rifle, and bracelet. Tatsuya's side however had made some interesting fashion choices. Klaud as usual was sporting one of Madison's clown costumes, in this case it gave the understanding that it was made with thick and durable material particularly around the shoulder, chest and head area. Aside from that the long flowing bell tipped material that draped around her waist and came off the ends of her helmet, though most of it was covered by a long cape. With the exception of the clown themed accessories Tatsuya and Leo's uniforms were identical to Klaud's.

"I know it seems insensitive to say this all things considered: but we look ridiculous." Leo stated gesturing to his body that had been draped in a cloak. "I know that she's laughing at us even as we speak."

Not too far away in the audience area, Erika Chiba was indeed laughing her rear in off, while the rest of her classmates just looked on confused.

"I know that it may seem embarrassing Leo, but bare with me for a bit, because we do have a plan." Tatsuya stated as he loaded one of his Silver Horns with it's battery.

"Yah sure. Let's just kick some butt lady and gent shall we?" Leo stated as he gestured to the enemy forces.

Three gongs rang and the match began. Klaud cast three of her cards, speed, jump, Fly on Tatsuya, Leo and herself respectively. Leo leaped through the air and landed with a shock wave behind the enemy forces. Removing his cloak, Leo applied a bit of magic to it and transformed it into a a large full body shield, and used his dramatically enhanced leg strength to jumped forward. In the mean time Klaud had taken to the sky with her flight card and was already lining up her next card for a attack. George followed her into the air, propelling himself up and shooting himself into the sky with wind magic. Tatsuya began the process of closing the distance with Masaki using the speed card, Masaki in turn whipped out two gun type C.A.D.'s and began spitting out a burst of air bullets, super compressed balls of air capable of being shot into the surrounds in a scatter burst, meaning that Tatsuya now found himself surrounded by magic circles firing at him in mass.

"Let the games begin."

Tatsuya countered the three hundred sixty degree bombardment via rapid fire bursts of gram demolition, requiring neither complex formula nor did it put too much strain on his sizable reserves of Psion's, and hence could be fired with rapid fire scrutiny, destroying the magic circles before they could deliver their payload. Klaud and George were having a similar fight.

"You're good: But I'm one of the Cardinals of Magic! Cardinal George!" During the competition, George was watching Klaud closely, analyzing the formula of her various cards and inputting that into his C.A.D.'s, he is now able to use pseudo cast jamming against Klaud. Normally something like actively cast jamming like this would be impossible, but George was taking the one advantage he had over Klaud: The speed of a modern magical caster over a Ancient Magical Caster. As soon as Klaud whipped out one of her cards George saw it and knew what was coming, thanks to the up close zooming function of his goggles, and had the magical formula loaded into his C.A.D.'s ready to counteract Klaud's every move.

"So you've been watching all my matches eh? Looks like I've got me a fanboy. So tell me Fan boy?" Klaud started to ask as she presented the Shadow Card. "You wanna see something cool?"

Klaud did a back flip through the air to avoid another one of George's attacks, during which the magic circle showing that she was getting ready to cast a card appeared beneath her feet.

" _She's going to cast the Shadow Card!_ "

George readied his gun to fire at Klaud, but Klaud was faster. Cutting off her incantation mid sentence Klaud threw her card charge with psion's at George, which mid throw turned into a beast made of lightning and attacked George, overloading and frying his gun C.A.D. in the process.

"The purpose of this staff, is to act as a conductor to ensure a steady and controlled flow of psion's, while adding additional energy from light to the released cards giving them more power." Suddenly Klaud's staff returned to the form of a key around a string which she then hung around her neck. "But just for today the price of that control is too high for me to handle, so it looks like I'm going to have to discard it." Lightning circled back around next to Klaud and snuggled up to her, and she returned his affections by scratching his head, turning him back into the form of a card in the process. "In case you haven't figured this out yet." Klaud put lightning back into her holster and in it's place she removed another card, The Earthy. "This is the power of a Clow Card that hasn't had it's hands tied behind it's back."

"Damnit!"

George got his remaining C.A.D. ready to fire again but it was already too late, Klaud dropped the psion charged card and it sank into the earth. Suddenly, the entire area started to shake, the ground moving and sliding beneath their feet. The tremors got louder as the earth began to shake apart, chunks began rising into the air as the warring factions were separated from one another. Using the impressive speed and the massively improved jumping power that had been loaned to them Tatsuya and Leo quickly reunited with Klaud who had taken the high ground on top of a massive Earth Serpent's head.

"Holy Cow Klaud! Why do you keep doing things that are gonna give me nightmares!?" Leo stated nervously looking down from very high up.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud who's body was alight with bright red lines all over her body.

"I will be." Klaud whipped out her staff and the Ice card, going through the proper activation sequence, Klaud created a bubble of super cooled air around her, which made her body cool down a little bit. "What's the situation with you guys?"

"For a background character that guy is pretty tough, I guess that's what I can expect from the ally of the crimson prince and Cardinal George." Leo stated letting out a sigh.

"If this is our new environment, then we'll have to change our battle plans." Tatsuya held out his hand and at once a spirit resembling a blue feline emerged sitting on his hand. "All that a speed boost like this on a narrow surface is going to do is get myself killed." Klaud took The Speed card and had it return to it's sealed form.

"You want a new one?" Klaud asked looking at Tatsuya expectantly.

"We don't have time to come up with a new strategy, I'll just have to plow through him using brute force." Tatsuya explained before he jumped off the head of Earthy.

"You should go too Leo." Klaud sprouted her wings and flew off the head of the Earthy. "If Earthy catches you buzzing around her head like a fly then she's liable to swat at you." Dropping that extremely ominous comment Klaud then took off further down the body of her giant Earth spirit.

"Was this your intention from the start? Have Klaud rip the arena out of the ground and have it try to kill us?" Masaki asked gesturing to the suddenly serpentine arena.

"Klaud did this on her own and without consulting us first." Tatsuya stated spitting out his dissatisfaction with the situation. "Honestly, to force Klaud to resort to letting her cards run wild, your Cardinal George must be quite something."

"Shouldn't it be me congratulating Klaud for forcing George to come up with such a innovative use of C.A.D. technology?" Masaki replied in a humorous questioning tone.

"You haven't met Klaud's family." Tatsuya replied in his signature talking about the weather voice.

"She brought you to meet her parents?" Masaki asked with clear suspicion on his face.

"Her sisters came to visit the school once. They're just as, if not more so, as dangerous as Klaud is." Tatsuya explained, eyeing Klaud who had begun to circle the battlefield.

"That is scary. Well it's nice to know what I'm in for at the same time." Masaki stated with a bit of a bitter smile on his face.

Suddenly the two combatants noticed the smashed remains of the two monolith's flying past their faces, courtesy of Earthy their ripped out of the ground and come to life battle arena.

"Speaking of, it seems that one of our win requirements have just been smashed to pieces. I assume that you know what this means for us correct?" Tatsuya asked looking at Masaki with a knowing look.

"Indeed I do." Masaki replied with a smirk on his face.

Suddenly both individuals whipped out their pistols and began firing at each other. Masaki could tell that Tatsuya's movements had slowed down immediately, he could no longer afford to use that speed magic on such narrow terrain, as such he could now afford to match Tatsuya's push for close quarters combat. Like wise Tatsuya found himself being pressured by Masaki's attacks, the closer he got, the shorter the distance that his spells had to travel, the less energy they expended, and thus the more magic circles that had appeared. With the speed and efficiency that they were being cut down, you wouldn't believe that Tatsuya didn't have the speed card with him at the time. Finally, Masaki messed up, and not in a good way. Not keeping track of the settings on his C.A.D. combined with his growing frustration against Tatsuya, he accidentally fired off more air bullets then what the legal limit allowed him to.

" _Oh crap! If he gets hit with that many Air Bullets at once, it'll kill him!_ "

Tatsuya's vastly superior reflexes and use of duel C.A.D.'s eliminated a huge number of the Air Bullets, but sadly not enough. Several bullets were fired at him at once and their combined impact sent him hurling through the air. Klaud saw what was happening and rushed to react, until she realized she wasn't the only one reacting. Seeing the glow inside of her card holster Klaud opened it and pulled out the Time Card.

"Time? Someone's using time Magic?"

Before Klaud knew what was happening Tatsuya turned his tossing through the air into a flip and safely landed next to Masaki. Then Klaud saw Tatsuya raise his arm up to snap his fingers. Acting Quickly, Klaud used the Speed card to give herself the necessary boost to fly behind the huge screen that separated the battle field from the audience. What followed next could easily be mistaken for a sonic boom. With a Snap of his fingers Tatsuya released an explosion of psions through the air as pure sound shattering not only both his and Masaki's ear drums but also the large assortment of flat screens that Klaud had been hiding behind. In doing so a rather poignant fact had been revealed: the large bomb hidden inside of the billboards that the audience had been watching.

"Oh Schnitzel!" Klaud flew over to Tatsuya's last known position and much to her horror discovered him out cold alongside Masaki. "Oh Double Schnitzel."

Admittedly, it took George a minuet to figure out what Klaud was doing, having gone death thanks to Tatsuya's finisher attack. Then he looked up at the ruined Bill board, and made a scramble over to her as well.

"Klaud!" George ended the scramble by grabbing Klaud by her shoulders and spinning her to face him. "If you can get me up there, I can dismantle the bomb!" Klaud smirked and nodded her head.

At once she grabbed the small student whom she strongly suspected had been skipped through school and carried him through the air to the half destroyed bill board.

"Pentaerythritol tretranitrate explosive, contained inside of a two gallon water jug and with a cellular device attached to the side to serve as a detonator. Which means..." And thus in the most unspectacular manner known to man, George ripped the detonator off the side of the explosive. "It's officially diffused."

"That's it? I kinda expected something... more?" Klaud asked as she stared at the extremely volatile package she had discovered.

"Klaud, contrary to popular belief not all bomb makers make elaborate works of electrical engineering only to then have it go off in someone's face. However they all do make things that go boom, the more simple the package, the more likely it is to deliver it's payload, but the easier it is to disarm. That said we do still have two gallons of highly explosive liquid to dispose of on our hands positioned somewhere it could do a great deal of damage, so now what are we gonna do with it?" George asked while he began rubbing his chin.

"Leave that part to me!" Klaud brought out the Float card and used it to cover the jug of explosive material in a pink aura that caused it to float into the air. "Earthy!" At Klaud's beckoning the head of the giant earth serpent that could easily crush them and the entire audience with them came over and eyed the pair. "Can you chomp down on that for us?" At Klaud's request Earthy stretched over and snapped down on the container, letting out a explosive belch in the process. "Well that takes care of that, shall we end this farce now?" Klaud asked looking George with a knowing smirk on her face.

At once George jumped back and got into a fighting position, in direct contrast to Klaud who continued to smirk knowingly as she pointed straight up. Curious, George followed the direction of her finger.

"Out of Bounds?" George read from the blimp that circled the area with another bill board sized arrangement of TV screens which depicted both Klaud and George as being out of bounds of the arena.

"Basically, I think they're disqualifying us." Klaud stated, as she recalled both Jump and Earthy, prompting the giant serpent to collapse. "You wanna get something to eat?"

"Well this seems anti-climatic eh?" The terrified opponent who had been the victim of Leo's bullying the entire match had been caught between a rock and a hard place, otherwise known as Leo. "After all of that crazy it comes down to us token third wheels eh?"

"Y-you can't lay a finger on you second course hack! You'll be disqualified if you do!" Towards this end, Leo took the C.A.D. he got from Tatsuya, held it front of his victim, and had the business end extend with enough speed and strength to hit the poor boy in the head hard enough to smack it into the rock behind him and knock him out cold.

"Well that takes care of that." Leo stated hearing the honk of the horn that signaled the end of the match. "Now I wonder if Erika saved me any popcorn?"

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: It has, if only a little.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note** : And thus we've almost reached the conclusion to the story arc, but more will be on the way soon. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 21: Course Three

Inside of the HQ For the No-Head Dragons, their mission had reached a critical boiling point. With the clear victory of First high in Monolith Code's rookie even and the sabotage of their sabotage in the main Monolith Code Event victory over would now be almost assured for First High. Their employers would not be happy, which meant that there would soon be openings in upper management after they are 'demoted' to generators. It was time that they moved their weapons of last resort into place.

"Number 16..." The man on the phone gulp, only slightly hesitant to do what he was about to do. "Implement our final measures."

* * *

Inside of the tent for First high, a celebratory feast was happening. This was on account of First High's recent victories in both the Monolith Code Rookie Events, and the 'crushing' victory by Katsuho in the Monolith Code Main event.

"A toast, to the next head of the Ten Clans!" This time it was Klaud leading the toast to Katsuho's honor, leading to the others to clink glasses with her.

"And to the peerless magical engineer who has made victory thus far possible." This time Katsuho led the toast to Tatsuya.

"A good engineer is nothing without a skilled magician to carry out his work." Tatsuya replied in a simple and honest tone of voice.

"Non sense! Thanks to all the waves you've been making the board of directors have been debating changing which course you're in." Mayumi stated with a warm smile on her face.

"They're planning to put my brother into the first course?" Miyuki asked both honest surprise and a great deal of hope on her features.

"Not to Course 1 but to Course 3." Miyuki look was equal parts confused and kicked puppy, so Mayumi decided to explain. "At the end of the day, Tatsuya is just not cut out for the first course. Not to mention, that by putting him into the first course, it will be proof that their long established method is flawed and they will have to admit their fault. No, this is neither a correction, or a punishment, but a improvement. A... innovation if you will. After all since it's inception there has never been before any school dedicated to the research and development of magical engineering, and as such First high wishes to be, well, the first. Hence, starting next year, first high will implementing the Magical Engineering course, otherwise known as Course 3." Mayumi stated clapping her hands together.

"Hmm. Presuming that they can hire some legitimate talent, I wouldn't even mind being a part of that." Tatsuya explained after a moment's thought.

"Well it's not like they could get someone like Taurus Silver to teach the class. Unless of course you think otherwise." Mayumi stated as she smirked knowingly at Tatsuya.

"I'm sure that he wouldn't mind preparing the proper reading materials, but as for making a physical appearance, I suspect that would be impossible." Tatsuya replied unfazed.

"Ah, what a shame." Mayumi sighed with a smirk still on her face. "Well, more importantly than the course itself is that there will be a chance to shake things up a bit between the first and second courses."

"It's not like it will be just the Second Course students unilaterally jumping into the third course." Mari explained cracking open a can of soda.

"That's true! My Kei will also want to join that course, and he's a part of First Course!" Kanon explained raising her hand into the air.

"Because of this, we can estimate that one third of the second course students will be attending the Engineering course, and one third of the First Course students will enter the third course as well, meaning that another third of Second Course Students can enter the First course." After all, the school did not implement the two course system out of any malevolent intention to put people down, but rather because they were lacking the personnel to do so. "How about you Klaud, gonna jump ship into First Course, or gonna go into Third course?" Mari asked looking at Klaud.

"Neither, getting promoted just because someone else dropped out seems like tasteless hollow victory to me, and I have no interest in Magical engineering either. Now if there was a class on Ancient Magic that I could attend that would be something I'd be interested in." Klaud stated resting her chin on one hand drinking pop from another.

"Ancient Magic course eh?" Mayumi stated, suddenly smiling while she scratched her chin.

"It would make sense. Some of the greatest magics originated from ancient magic, and depending on the situation it presents a ideal tactical advantage. Having researchers to decipher and improve upon it might prove beneficial to the future." Katsuho stated with his arms crossed.

"Should we propose a fourth course, or make it part of the third course though?" Mari asked, raising a fair point.

"Technically, I think that this would fall under the category of magical research and development, so making it a part of the third course would probably be for the best." Mayumi stated smiling knowingly.

"Well the Third Course program was proposed because of Klaud and Tatsuya, it would be rather shameful if both of them didn't participate." Katsuho stated bluntly.

"Ugh! Come on!" Klaud groaned into the palm of her hand before taking a deep breath. "If I promise that I will think about it, will you drop the topic until at least after the competition is over?"

"Deal. Though that just bought you one day until Mirage bat is over. But onto our game plan. Miyuki, Shizuka, Klaud and Kanon." The four students in question all turned their attention to Mayumi. "This is one of those rare occasions where one school has managed to claim the top four spots in a single event, as such the judging committee has seen fit to grant all of you the top four places in the event. Of course without having the final battle, it's going to be a four way tie."

"I'm out." Klaud stated raising her hand into the air. "I gotta get these taken care of before they become a problem." Klaud raised up her shirt exposing the vein like burns that went up her abdomen, even though Klaud had manage to nullify most of her body overheating during the Monolith code event at the end of the day she only canceled out one dangerous condition by stacking another dangerous condition on top of it so she still suffered some damage.

"I'm going to have to drop out too." Kanon stated raising up her hand a bit. "All the excitement over the past couple of days has worn me a little thin."

"I don't intend to drop out." Shizuka stated turning her head and glaring intensely at Miyuki.

"Then it looks like I am to be your opponent." Miyuki stated smiling warmly at the shorter girl.

* * *

Later, Klaud was in her room with her mother while a nearby TV Broadcasted the beginnings of the fight between Miyuki and Shizuka.

"Is there something bothering you Klaud?" Klaud was in a state of undress while her mother applied bio oil to her burns to help repair the damage done to her skin.

"Earlier, Mayumi told me about a new course being prepared at First High, the '3rd course.' GYAH! Apparently, it was tailored made for me and Tatsuya." Klaud explained while her mother slicked the oil up her arm.

"I'm not surprised, by now they've realized that they don't know the first thing about magic and they're looking to cover themselves." Sakura stated, laughing amused at the school's flailing.

"The Thing I was wondering though, is should I participate? I mean it's not like there's anything they could teach me about ancient magic. In fact, it sounds like they want me to teach them." Klaud explained, a look of dread upon her.

"It does sound like a complicated situation you have yourself in doesn't it?" Sakura stood up and began pacing about the room. "But if I maybe so bold as to suggest, if you still intend to change the world, then you must first make it listen to you, and if you intend to make the world listen, then becoming a teacher is a step in the right direction."

"But what if I teach them something that they're not ready for? What if I end up making things worst?" Klaud asked sounding depressed.

"Do you remember what I taught you?" Sakura asked cocking a brow at her daughter.

"'Peace, above all else.'" Klaud quoted, making her mother's eyes light up.

"If you intend to be a teacher Klaud, then it would be wise to treat your students as children, and if you intend to treat them like children, then you must remember when to be kind, and when to be strict." Sakura stated as she reached over and nudged Klaud's chin up to face her. "That's what makes me a good mother."

"Ahh! Mom!" Klaud stated as she broke out into laughter.

On the TV, it was Miyuki's unilateral victory. Even with the Air Mine Rifle that Tatsuya had made for Shizuka during the Speed shooter Event, reeking devastating damage on the battle field, it was no match for the overwhelming power of Miyuki's Niffilheim attack, sucking every last drop of heat out of her side of the field, and pumping it into Shizuka's side of the battle field and surrounding area turned equal parts frozen wasteland and scorched earth, it was a good thing it was the final rookie match, the likely hood that the field would be used for anything for the next month was null. In the end, the end result of Miyuki in first place, Shizuka in Second, and Klaud and Kanon tied for third. And so for the finale of the evening, the Mirage Bat events were on the way.

"Come on Shizuka! Cheer up, it isn't that bad!" Honoka was doing her best comfort her depressed friend Shizuka who had been thoroughly beaten by Miyuki during the final match.

"I know going in that I had no chance, but I thought that at least with one of Tatsuya-kun's C.A.D.'s I could..." While the depressed Shizuka was left to mope, the match was getting on the way.

The rules were simple, the competitors, dressed as fairy's, were to by any means necessary reach high into the air and hit the color coordinated targets with their wands, while at the same time trying not to hit the opponent's targets. For every correct target you hit, you win a point, for every incorrect target you hit, you lose a point, the one with the most points at the end of the match is the winner. Three gong's later, and the match had begun, with the competitors using magic to jump into the air and swat at targets. However, no less than thirty seconds into the match, a small electrical explosion happened in the C.A.D. of the girl competing for first high, rendering her unconscious and sending her on a collision course with the ground below, that is to say if she wasn't caught by watery card first. Once Klaud had rescued the traumatized competitor the rest of the match proceeded as scheduled with first high having to drop out.

"It would seem that our little Gremlin is still on the loose." Mayumi stated, looking over the medical reports of a individual who on top of being the latest victim of the little monster in question, was also a good friend of her's. "Would somebody mind explaining why we haven't caught this little butt pain yet?"

"They've been crafty up until now, but no more, with the only event left for them to sabotage being Miyuki's I will guard her C.A.D. from conception to execution with my life, if this snake pops his head out of his hole then he's gonna lose it!" Tatsuya stated, a look nothing short of hatred in his eyes.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note** : Merry Chirstmas to all! And to all a good night! Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 22: Magical Physical Education: Mirage Bat

Tatsuya was lined up in front of a tent set up by the judging committee, having just finished tuning his sister's C.A.D. now he just had to get it certified by the judging committee and then get it to her before the competition started. Under normal circumstances he might feel offended by someone looking over shoulder second guessing his work. But ever since Mari's 'Accident' the judging committee has been extra stringent to make sure that it would be the last. So far everything looked like it was going as planned. But then again if their little gremlin was going to try and sabotage anyone, it would be Miyuki, and he would be ready for when they did. Thus after a good few minuets, as the ten people before him did Tatsuya placed his sister's C.A.D. on the calibration table. And then he saw it, as the light of the scanner skimmed beneath the C.A.D. a spark of black electricity entered the C.A.D. That instant, the Technician operating the machine face hit the machine hard enough to crush his nose and leave it a bloodied pulp, before yanking him over and threw him onto the ground and pinned him there with his knee.

"What is going on here?" Retsu Kudou, head of the judging committee, and the superior of the man whom Tatsuya had pinned ready to snap his head clean from his shoulders.

"This man here tampered with my sister's C.A.D!" Tatsuya all but snarled.

"I did no..." The man was interrupted by Tatsuya slamming his face into the ground.

"I saw you do it!" Tatsuya yelled, before security pulled the two away.

"Ah if I may interrupt." The young man who was standing in line behind Tatsuya, otherwise known as Cardinal George, began interrupting something that he suspected was going to get ugly fast. "I saw a Black Metatron enter the C.A.D. Tatsuya put on the table. I'm sure you've heard of them before."

The Metatron, otherwise known as a thunder spirit, a entity that while once rare has since become a common sight since the invention of alternating current, however by forcing one into a computer and infecting that computer with a virus it is possible to take control of the spirit and have it act as a computer virus for C.A.D.s of the explosive kind.

"Take the device and this man into custody." Retsu ordered using his cane to point to both the device on the table and the man who had apparently tampered with it. "My apologies for the inconvenience, assuming that you are in the right here. Assuming that it is still intact by the time we're done tampering with it we'll have your sister's C.A.D. back to her by the end of the day." Observing the small device being dropped into a small plastic bag before sealing it up tight.

"Might as well make a new one from scratch. But not today." Tatsuya simply pulled out another C.A.D. from his pocket. "You'll excuse me for not submitting this one for testing." Tatsuya, apparently having decided that he had wasted enough time there, ran off in another direction.

"Oi you!" But was interrupted by the man that he had nearly killed.

"What makes you think she's the only one to be sabotaged. She wasn't even the favorite to win!" Tatsuya ran off, but not for the Colosseum, for the Hotel.

After barging into the ladies wing with a contingent of security grunts Tatsuya and company arrived outside of Klaud's family room. The group found bits of chopped meat on the ground, roughly the size of dice. At first the group thought they were just bits of lunch meat, until they found a pair of human eye-balls.

"What the hell happened here!?" One individual asked while observing two of his colleagues competing to deposit their breakfast in a nearby trash can.

"Klaud!" Tatsuya began banging on the door to Klaud's room.

"Hold your horses Tatsuya!" If ever there was such a thing as a cross between a circus clown and a fairy, Klaud was dressed like it.

"Klaud what happened!?" Tatsuya asked slightly panicked.

"Tell me about it, some days I swear Madison is colored blind!" Klaud stated with a roll of her eyes.

"I mean this!" Tatsuya held up one of a pair of eye balls which together with the bits of meat and bone on the floor use to add up to a human being.

"What on earth?" Klaud asked getting a look at the scene of a unilateral slaughter.

"Do you have any idea how this happened?" Tatsuya asked gesturing to the mess.

Instead of answering, Klaud ran for the window in the hotel room and emptied her stomach contents into the courtyard below.

"Ah Klaud sorry about making you see that." Sakura walked back into the hallway bloodied towel in hand and blood all over her clothes. "I know how squeamish you can be at times."

"You did this?" One of the guard's asked pointing down to the mess on the floor.

"A soulless Generator, or whatever Rebecca calls them, that had the audacity to slam his fists on my daughter's door with this in hand." Sakura produced a gun type C.A.D. from her pocket. "Yes, I killed what little was left of him."

"You didn't even notice any of this was going on?" One of the guards asked pointing to the mess on the floor.

"I doubt it she was unconscious at the time." Sakura stated crossing her arms once she finished with the towel.

"Why was she unconscious?" Tatsuya asked becoming quickly confused by this whole strange and very messy situation.

"Really? You have to ask why I was unconscious?" Klaud asked gesturing to the latest nightmare engine created by her sister.

"As I understand it, you knocked Klaud out, stuffed her into that costume then somebody came by asking for Klaud and you opened the door and turned him into diced meat and now you just got back from washing yourself off in the bathroom?" Tatsuya asked rubbing his temples.

"Yes." Sakura replied taking but a moment to ponder the question.

"Alright Madam, we're going to have to take you in. You are under arrest for murder." One of the guards stated getting the cuffs ready.

"Well if that's the case." Sakura threw the Time Card onto the floor, near instantaneously restoring the man that she had reduced to sandwich meat to perfect health. "This I believe is yours." Sakura stated handing the gun to the man. Taking the gun, the first thing the man did was aim it directly at Klaud. A instant later, the gun exploded, a beast made of lightning came out of the explosion and electrocuted the man into unconsciousness. "Now. Seeing as how I'm no longer under arrest I'd like to go and watch my daughter's match." The lightning card returned to Sakura before she walked back the way she came.

* * *

Tatsuya was allowed a hour to fine tune his sister's C.A.D, he got it done in ten minuets, leaving fifty minuets, plenty of time for Tatsuya to prepare a back up plan. With that the players took the field, and three dongs later, they were off. Klaud seized a early, and as many of her competitor's were quick to point out, rather unfair advantage when she grew a pair of wings and took off into the air. They weren't particularly small wings, at first those watching were confused what was happening, those that had seen the fly card in action recognized it, but with it's large wings it lacked the nimble maneuverability needed to pull off the one part obstacle course and one part scavenger hunt, to compensate for that decrease in speed from a loss of size Klaud used the speed card to make herself faster and accurately and efficiently hit as many First High targets as she could. Miyuki looked at Klaud with a dissatisfied look on her face, before looking down and Spotting Tatsuya who just nodded back at her. With that Miyuki thus brought out a small joy stick like device and activated it, and unlike before where she had to rely on a C.A.D that used air current to enhance her upward motion, this one achieved true flight. What had meant to be a air born obstacle course soon turned into a race as the two individuals competed for the most points. Tatsuya wasn't really sure which one of them ultimately won, but the point was the first round went to First High.

* * *

"At this rate, First High will win the entire kit-caboodle." One member of No-Head Dragon lamented.

"We have only one option left to us, we must cut our losses, at the very least, we will break even if we can cancel the events. Activate all the generators at once." At once one of the other board members went over to a series of switches and flipped them all over.

For each switch there was a light that would turn on releasing all the restraints on a generator and signalling that the generator under stands it's orders to begin going on a uncontrolled rampage. Except that, that wasn't happening, none of the generators were responding to orders. At once one of the Board members called their minions.

"Number 12 why haven't you..."

"If you're receiving this message..." That voice, of that monster of nightmare myth and legend. "Then that means that we have just downloaded you're exact location. At the sound of the beep, please cowardly beg for your lives." A single beep punctuated the meeting room of the terrified men.

* * *

"Oi Rebecca, quit playing on your phone and help us with these things!" Maylin snapped carrying a body bag over her shoulder and tossing it into the back of a pick up truck.

"I just received the location of these goons bosses." Rebecca stated before she proceeded to stuff another unfortunate individual into a bag.

"Lovely, more people to kill." Maya stated as she hoisted another person into the vehicle. "Aren't you two going to help us with this?"

'You two' referred to Miyu and Madison who were using a couple sets of binoculars to watch the Mirage bat matches from a far.

"Oh I'm so happy for them!" Madison shouted happily clapping her hands together. Maylin walked over to Madison and grabbed her binoculars to look at the match.

"Sweet lord Madison are you going colorblind or were you drunk when you made that costume!?" Maylin declared before pulling the binoculars away and rubbing her eyes.

"Only a little." Madison replied holding her finger and her thumb a hair apart.

"Oh maybe I should bring Miyu to your studio sometime!" Miyu gushed holding her hands to her cheeks.

"Later. We've got work to do." Maya stated loading the last of the bodies onto the truck.

* * *

After the first round both Klaud and Miyuki had to submit their respective flight magics for testing by the officials. For Miyuki it wasn't a problem, Tatsuya had another flight C.A.D any way. For Klaud on the other hand she spent a good long time trying to convince them she wasn't using a C.A.D until they finally resorted to doing a strip search, and when that failed the performed a MRI on her. Hence Klaud now sat in the waiting room, wearing a hospital smock impatiently tapping her foot. They tried to relieve her of her staff and cards, and in exchange five grown men god a free trip to the emergency room. After waiting for what felt like an eternity Tatsuya finally came in with clip board in hand.

"Told yah's I don't use a C.A.D!" Klaud snapped drumming her fingertips against her cheek.

"While you don't actually use a C.A.D as far as we know, you do indeed have them." Tatsuya stated while he noted the contents the clipboard he was holding with interest.

"What are you talking about!?" Klaud asked narrowing a glare at Tatsuya and crossing her arms.

"You said that Rebecca was responsible for putting those plates holding your skeleton together into you right?" Tatsuya dropped the clip board onto the bed revealing a picture of Klaud's MRI, in it Klaud saw several circles around areas that she recalled bones breaking and joints disintegrating in the past. "It's fascinating really. You've got all these C.A.D's in you, and yet we both have no idea what they're for."

"I'M NOT A MYSTERY GAME YOU BLOODY SIS-CON!" While angry with Tatsuya Klaud's rage soon had a alternate target as she examined the photograph more closely. "Nor is this a mystery!" Klaud stated crumpling the photo in her hand before tossing it on the ground. "Tell everybody that I'm going to be unavailable for the rest of the day." Stating that Klaud stomped her way over to the door to leave.

"Klaud the next round of Mirage Bat is starting in a few minuets." Tatsuya stated grabbing Klaud by her shoulder.

"Then I'm dropping out." Klaud pulled her shoulder out of Tatsuya's grip. "This has been a long time coming!"

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: I hope so.


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note** : Happy New Years Everyone! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 23: Application of a Familiar

This did not make any sense, what was about those test results that made Klaud so angry that she had to run off so suddenly to deal with it. He supposed that as long as Klaud didn't try to burn the stadium down then it wasn't what was important right now. Not to him anyway. So Tatsuya made his way to the judging committee and informed them that Klaud was dropping out and went to the viewing area with his classmates, just beating the stadium wide announcement about Klaud dropping out for personal reasons.

"She didn't tell you?" Mayumi asked looking concerned at Tatsuya.

"She only got mad about the MRI results I showed her before muttering something about revenge and taking off." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin with his hand.

"Do you have them?" Mari asked looking concerned.

"I didn't get the chance to get a look at them, nor did she explain herself before she ran off. But if you think you can make heads or tails of them, then be my guest." Tatsuya stated holding a orange envelope over to Mari.

Using a single finger Mari opened the orange package and examined the contents inside, she saw red circles around her joints and indiscriminate rectangle blotches over her skeleton. Taking the swiss army knife out of her pocket she popped out a miniature magnifying glass and examined the photos. She had never seen the items lodged inside of Klaud's body before in her life, the only thing she knew was that they were put there to hold Klaud's body together after she managed to workout until her joints disintegrated, or her bones broke, or whatever other horrible fate her sisters put her through. Maybe just seeing how much damage those three had done to her over the years had finally made her snap.

"Hey, wait a sec." As Miyuki's match started, Mari yanked on Tatsuya's shoulder and with her other hand held the magnifying glass to the picture.

"What is it?" Tatsuya asked slightly annoyed as he was trying to enjoy the match.

"Take a look at this." The glass showed a close up of the rib cage. Tatsuya took another picture from the envelope, this one a closeup of the ribs and the device located there. There was a familiar pattern like a cross between tree roots and circuit boards. The same Pattern Mari saw shining through Klaud's swim suit at the end of the Battle Board Rookie Match. Which called into question on whether it was Klaud's body that was overheating or these C.A.D's. "Tatsuya, do you think that Klaud is going to try and do something reckless?" Mari asked a steely glaze in her eyes.

"I think I'm going to miss Miyuki's match." Tatsuya's sentence was suddenly punctuated by a loud explosion in the distance coming from the grassy plains.

* * *

Maylin finished loading the last of the bodies onto the back of her truck and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Where's Rebecca?" Maylin looked over to the shot gun of her truck and saw Klaud sitting there, with two noticeable details.

The first was that she was sitting there instead of participating in the final match like she was suppose to be, and second was that she was wearing her Monolith code uniform instead of that appalling outfit for Mirage Bat.

"What are you doing here?" Maylin asked surprised with Klaud's sudden appearance.

"I am looking for Rebecca." Klaud stated looking annoyed.

"That much is obvious, what I don't understand is why are you here? You're terrified of us." Maylin asked observing a somewhat murderous glare in Klaud's eyes.

"If you don't want to tell me where Rebecca is, then I can go looking for her myself." Klaud got out of the truck and brought out one of the card's from her holster, one that Maylin could see from the driver's seat.

"Klaud!" A Panicked Maylin immediately got out of the truck and made mad dash for Klaud.

"Shot Card, find Rebecca!" Maylin tackled Klaud to the ground as the transformed Shot Card flew up into the air.

"Klaud what the hell are you doing!?" Maylin shouted loudly, pinned Klaud to the ground by her shoulders. Klaud's only response was to use the jump card to kick Maylin off of her. Though she was sent flying Maylin wasn't too bothered by the attack landing on her feet after flipping through the air a couple of times.

"I am getting some long awaited answers!" Klaud stated as she jumped up and brushed the dirt off of herself. "Like for example, why did you chase me around over hills, through winding streets for ten kiliometers every single day for a year until all the joints in my body disintegrated? Was it just so that Rebecca could plant C.A.D.s all over my body disguised as prosthetic implants!?"

"So you know about those do you?" Maylin stated, taking a long breath of air and exhaling slowly.

"What is going on!? What are you three trying to do to me!?" Klaud by this point in time was screeching.

Then Maylin inhaled sharply and grit her teeth.

"It's complicated Klaud." Then, acting like she just lost her nerve, Maylin let the air in her lungs out.

"Is that your final answer?" Klaud asked, a pink colored card in her hands.

"That's the way it has to be sis." Maylin replied a card of her own in her hand.

Pink and white light radiated from Klaud and Maylin respectively. Then Klaud Screamed. It was haunting. It was anguished. It was enraged. Using new found super human strength Klaud kicked the truck behind her into the air and threw it at Maylin, exploding when it slammed into her in true Hollywood fashion. If Maylin wasn't using the Shield card right now that would have killed her. Ill regardless she got windy out and blew the smoke around her away.

"Klaud. How did you know I put shield up just now?" Maylin asked strongly suspecting she already knew the answer.

Klaud's only response, she pulled out another card, and after a dose of psions that card turned into a sword.

" _As I feared, she's planning to fight with intent to kill._ "

Klaud jumped forward and hacked apart the shield with the sword. Maylin used windy to suck herself back a good length of distance. This was the fourth card Klaud had activated, she was already at her limit, the glowing hot lines running throughout her body was proof enough of that fact. Then a icy wind took hold over the area, Klaud using the Ice Card again like she did in the monolith code match.

"You're only going to give yourself frost bite like this Klaud!" Maylin countered the cold air with the Fiery card, sending the card blazing and twirling around the area trying to warm up the area before someone, namely Klaud, got herself hurt.

"Shot found Rebecca." Klaud stated suddenly, prompting Maylin to pause. "The bar, I should have known." Klaud whipped out two more cards, speed and fly and took off through the air like a bullet.

At the same time a crowd of people consisting of the judging committee, first high students, Masaki Ichijou, Cardinal George and as Maylin noted with true horror her own Mother.

"Maylin!" Sakura exclaimed arriving on scene and panting, having just run all the way there. "What's going on?"

"I think Klaud has snapped." Maylin stated staring in shock at Klaud as she flew off. "I'll go after her, someone try and keep Rebecca from dying in the meantime." Maylin donned her own wings and speed and flew off through the air after Klaud.

When Klaud was in reach Maylin whipped out the Arrow Card and fired a volley of the razor sharp projectiles off at her, one manage to pierce her leg sending her plummeting to the ground. Klaud's landing was not at all pleasant, in addition to the hole in her leg she strongly suspected that she broke a arm on that landing, no worries though, nothing Time couldn't handle.

"You are really determined to get in my way today aren't you?" Klaud asked in a menacing tone as she got back to her feet, watching Maylin land not ten feet away from her.

"Klaud I'm warning you..." Maylin stated getting her own version of the sword card ready.

"Or you'll do what? Make me drop and do five thousand? Run all the way around the world this time? News flash for you Maylin: I'm not the scared little sister that you could just terrify into submission! You, and Rebecca, and Madison and even Mom evidently has spent the past decade beating courage into me!" As if to embody that courage Klaud took out two more cards, mirror and twin, and used them to make two identical copies of herself complete with speed and sword. "I'm not scared of any of you any more!"

Now the people were starting to panic, whispering among each other in fear and panic. Maylin saw the chance and took it, whipping out Quiet and having it whisk away the crowd before they did anything foolhardy or reckless.

"I hate it when unnecessary people get in the way of family affairs."

At Maylin's provocation the three Klaud's all rushed at Maylin swinging blades prompting Maylin to bend over into awkward places to block the attacks, a couple of locks of hair on the ground counting the close calls of her head being loped clean off. That was the only sure fire way of killing one of them, with their annoyingly potent regrowth based immortality being preserved through their magic and their magic being maintained by their brains the only way to score a kill was instant brain death. Maylin's problem here was that with three Klaud's to choose from she had a one in three chance that she could end up seriously hurting Klaud, granted nothing that Regrowth couldn't fix in an instant, but hurting her none the less. The only way to stop her at this point would be to kill her, and even temporarily there would be a huge mental scar left behind in the process. And Klaud already had enough of those to begin with.

"I'm not gonna hurt you Klaud!" Maylin's only option here would be to keep the fight going until Klaud's rage burned her out.

Except that the longer this fight went on, the more horribly Klaud would suffer, some times she could kill Rebecca.

"I've heard that line before!" Maylin had to give her credit for that.

So for now she switched to defense, producing not only the shield, but the twin and mirror to triple the layers of shielding, as one is cut down another would be there to provide support while it regenerated and a third for when that failed. Klaud however refused to be predictable and once Maylin stopped attacking her she took her cards and flew off again. Whatever answer's she was looking for she seemed mighty adamant that Rebecca has it.

"You don't like to make it easy do you?" Maylin jumped into the air and body slammed Klaud into the hotel crashing through one of the windows and pinning her to the bed of a couple that looked like they were about to be very busy with it and were now mildly miffed that they were interrupted.

"Leave!" Maylin growled in a tone of voice that was not compromising. The couple became much more cooperative after Klaud hacked the bed apart trying to get out of Maylin's grasp. As the saying goes the best defense equals a good offense. So with the sword card in one hand and the twin card in the other Maylin dueled Klaud parrying her blows knocking her strikes away, keeping her youngest family member from doing something that she'll regret. "I don't seem to recall that young couple doing anything to you before." Maylin noted blocking one blow from Klaud.

"I can't seem to recall caring." Coldly declaring that Klaud threw another card down.

Suddenly the entire room, along with the hotel itself, was distorted and gave way for a elaborate maze made out of green stone, before Klaud took off flying through it like a bat out of heck.

"Figures."

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.

Duked: I didn't mean it to be, no matter, thank you for saying so.


	24. Chapter 24

**Author's Note** : Warning, heart wrenching feels ahead, read at your own risk. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 24: Psychological Health Care of Magicians

Rebecca stumbled out of the bar barely able to stand, half full bottle in hand. Tripping over herself she landed in the dirt her watch in plain view of her. Three seconds to nine o'clock AM. Two. One. A orange digital like glow of light covered her body before disappearing. Instant sobriety without even getting hung over, like she was never even drunk to begin with, one application of her body's automatic regrowth function. Were it that she even enjoyed being sober it would be a good one too. As it was though she hated it, sobriety came with a pain worst than any hang over, the pain of remembering, of not being so numb to everything and everyone around her that she can't feel any more. Rolling over so that her face wasn't in the dirt, Rebecca examined her bottle, and observed that the neck she was holding it by was the only thing still intact. "Great." While Rebecca debated going for another drink or going to Klaud's match she looked up at the sky and saw a red streak pass over head before taking a sharp turn downward.

"Crud!" Rebecca rolled out of the way as the Shot Card slammed into the ground where she laid. Whipping out a Card with bright yellow light, the Shot card was sucked into a infinity symbol, and left to chase around the loop card looking for a way out. "Now, I wonder what my little sister has gotten herself into."

* * *

When Klaud arrived at the bar she found the area stuck in a loop card, Klaud used her sword card to cut through Rebecca's and freed Shot only for her to reseal it. Rebecca's loop card entered it's sealed form and flew off for parts unknown, looking for it's master. Following the Card, Klaud found Rebecca sitting on a bench in the nearby courtyard.

"You look like how I feel." Rebecca stated gesturing first to Klaud and then herself.

"And what is that?" Klaud asked increasingly annoyed with her sister's apparent flamboyant attitude.

"Sober, viciously, mercilessly sober." Ignorance as they say was bliss, and for Rebecca, drunk was ignorance, bliss was simply not knowing that something horrible had happened or was happening. "So what crime have I committed that has finally pushed you over the edge?"

"Let's Start with the C.A.D.'s you put into my body, the ones that start burning me from the inside out every time I try to over use my magic?" Klaud asked looking at Rebecca with utter hate in her eyes.

"Are you serious? Is that what this is about? I did that to you years ago!" Rebecca snapped angrily.

"So you don't even deny it!" Klaud snapped back already getting another card ready. "What happened exactly, did you get drunk one night and thought to yourself 'how can I make Klaud's life even more miserable than it was before? Oh I know I'll make her suffer horrible, crippling, life threatening pain every time she tries to use magic!'"

"It's nothing like that and you know it Klaud! I explained that to you after your surgery!" Rebecca snapped back growing increasingly impatient.

"What are you talking about!? After I woke up one morning in the back of your lab covered in your surgical scars I found you passed out on your desk with a bottle of booze in one of your hands! So not only did you not give me a proper explanation, but you operated on me drunk!" A final line crossed, Rebecca stood up and slammed Klaud against a post keeping her pinned there by her neck with one hand.

"I! Never! Operated! On! You! DRUNK!" Rebecca growled glaring at Klaud with a burning rage in her eyes. Klaud kicked Rebecca hard enough to send her flying into the bench with enough force to break the boards of the bench. "Do you honestly think I would do something that stupid!?"

"Stupid!? You want to talk to me about stupid!? Like making yourself so drunk you become numb to the world around you! Like Driving, casting magic, like everything else you do while you're drunk!" Klaud shrieked, clearly getting a lot of stuff off of her chest as her cards flew out of her holster and started to circle around her. "You've had this coming for a very long time Rebecca." Similar to Klaud Rebecca pulled out her deck of cards and threw them into the air, causing them to float around in the air around her.

"I would like to see you try Klaud." Klaud released the Shot Card again whom resumed her pursuit of her original target.

Rebecca pulled up the mirror card and the Shot card bounced off of it only to curve in midair and pursued her target with the reckless abandon that typified the card only for Rebecca to counter with the Mirror Card. Klaud was not done yet however, and pulled out the twin card, which now caused double the amount of Shots flying around the area trying to kill Rebecca. Klaud initially expected Rebecca to pull up twin card to produce another mirror. Instead however, Rebecca pulled out the move card and applied it to the mirror, causing Mirror to teleport around Rebecca in short bursts easily fending off both of the cards Klaud was using against her.

"The Move Card!?" Klaud remembered having each of the Cards explained to her. The Move Card was easily dismissed as one of the most useless of Cards, only capable of moving small and lightweight objects short distances due to the enormity of the power involved in instantaneous transportation.

"Light weight objects an extremely short distance? Why wouldn't a clow card meet those requirements Klaud? Didn't I tell you to come up with inventive combination of Clow Cards already?" Rebecca asked half scolding half mocking.

"FINE!"

Klaud produce the ice card a deep chill ran through the area as Klaud's body was forcibly cooled down before it started to over heat, then she whipped out the water Card and together the two ice types took over the nearby fountain and produced many spikes of ice and rampaged against Rebecca. Quickly, Rebecca spun around and while the Mirror Card was fending off the two Shot's Rebecca whipped out her sword card and began hacking apart the incoming ice projectiles.

"Grr."

Letting out a frustrated grown Klaud got out her arrow card and took aim at Rebecca with it before unleashing a massive swarm of arrows at her. Rebecca got her Windy Card out and used it to create a miniature cyclone to blow away all of the arrows without even scratching her.

"Give it up Klaud! I can beat you at every turn!" If Arrow couldn't beat Windy, then she'd just have to give it the power of another elemental card to beat it. Taking out the fire card, a red glow overtook the bow in Klaud's hands and she got ready to fire another volley. "Oh Shit. KLAUD WAIT!"

But Klaud was not listening. In fact she was not doing anything at all. Perhaps it was this exact combination of magic in Klaud's system. Perhaps it was the sight of the weapon in her hand. Or maybe it was just Rebecca using the illusion card on her. But what Klaud saw instead of the hotel courtyard instead looked suspiciously like a massive subburban area that had been hit by a massive fire storm and left in a state of ruin as a result.

"Gyah!" After a few solid minuets of hacking and slashing, Maylin finally escaped from the hotel through the use of the sword card and looked down at the Courtyard where Rebecca and Klaud were fighting with a look of pure horror on her features after she zeroed in on the weapon Klaud had.

"I see them, over here!" Madison stated directing the rushing group's attention to the Courtyard, and in the process, catching sight of the weapon Klaud had in her grasp. "Oh no." Madison mewled in a weak voice upon seeing the weapon Klaud had.

Finally, Klaud stumbled and fell backwards, firing her payload into the the sky. The payload split into a thousand fire tipped arrows and began falling back down to earth. Before anything else could happen that night, a huge dome formed from a combination of the big and the shield appeared around the area protecting the hotel, the stadium and everyone in between from a huge storm of fire.

"That's enough everyone." As if responding to whatever danger Klaud was perceiving, all of the cards floating around her started glowing various different colors as if getting ready to activate. "Klaud's okay now, you can calm down now." Holding out her hand like she was beckoning someone, Sakura's hand was suddenly filled with Klaud's deck of cards. Klaud however was still stumbling around, the look in her eyes that of someone who was not seeing reality right now. Sakura walked over to Klaud and kissed her on her forehead, causing her daughter to fall asleep in her arms. "Maylin, Rebecca, fix the mess you've started."

""Yes mam."" The two sisters stated as if they were replying a stern and unforgiving general.

"Madison, keep all the noisy people away from us." Sakura stated, turning a stern glare that would give a five star general the chills.

"Alright everyone nothing left to see here." Madison stated as she shooed the assemble crowd away in the same way one might a class of small children.

"Mrs. Reed." That wasn't her name, but it was something she practiced getting use to when the decision was made to try and hide Klaud away just for such case of emergency. Thus she turned to face Miyuki who had stepped out in front of the crowd. "Is Klaud going to be okay?"

"No." Dropping that ominous word with the coldness of a winter tundra, Sakura carried her daughter back to their room.

* * *

Klaud woke up with a gasp, hyperventilating as she tried to catch her breath. She was handed a paper bag and rapidly breathed in and out of it with such force that it eventually burst. Finally Klaud was hugged from behind by a familiar set of extremely warm arms.

"Klaud you have to calm down!" A stern voice that was filled with love stated, and at once Klaud felt her heart rate dropping and her breathing becoming regular again. As Klaud was about to speak up to talk with her mother again.

"Aheheh...!" The most that she could muster was a weak squeaking noise.

"I'm sorry for having to mute you Klaud, but I know that you are not in the mood to have a calm rational conversation right now." Sakura picked up a box that she had left beside the bed and placed it beside Klaud. Looking down at that box, Klaud saw a ominous word written there using masking tape: Truth. "That is something that you have looked for for a very long time isn't it? The reason why you have so much pain in your heart, why you feel so empty without knowing it. Understand something Klaud, no matter what your sisters have done to you, no matter what horrendous scar has been left in your memories. I will guarantee you that it is nothing, _nothing_ , in comparison to that which is inside of this box. If you are not ready to know, if you cannot handle the truth, then I will not fault you for that, I will simply put this box away for another time. But know that if you open this box, and you look at what is inside, then you won't be able to close it again, and you will have to live with what you've found inside for the rest of your immortal life."

Klaud gulped nervously, and hesitatingly, in spite of her mother squeezing her from behind tight enough that she almost couldn't breath, she had to know, she had to know why she woke up screaming in the night, she had to know what about her her sisters found so damn terrifying, she had to get some closure. And so opening the box, Klaud found a card. One of her Cards. With one of her magic circles printed on the back.

"Do you know what card this is? The one card I've forbidden you from ever using?"

Klaud had her suspicions, picking the card up, she saw the card was titled 'The Return.' As she recalled from the lectures, it was a complicated card that combined elements of both time and Illusion. Like one would expect from time, it could travel into the far past, but when you got there, all that you would see is an illusion, a video in 3D if you will, in spite of this it still ate up a huge amount of Psions, which was the reason why Sakura had always forbidden Klaud from using it, or the reason she gave anyway.

"If it's the two of us supplying the magic, then you will have no problem getting there, but you will have to go alone."

Nodding in understanding, the pair both took hold of the card and began concentrating psions into it.

* * *

When Klaud opened her eyes again, she found herself in the middle of a bustling suburban district. Though she didn't recognize it, it felt oddly familiar, it was night time but it wasn't dark, the entire area had been illuminated by Halloween decorations. Finally a door situated directly behind Klaud was unlocked, out from which walked a man in a clown costume carrying a young girl also in a clown costume came through the door before locking it.

" _Ugh. Does that guy hate his daughter or something?_ "

"Do you like your Auntie Madison's costume she made for you Klaud?" The Man stated shaking his daughter up and down, to which end she excitedly nodded up and down.

" _Wait. 'Auntie Madison'... 'Klaud'?_ "

Suddenly a jeep drove up to the house out from which emerged someone who looked a great deal deal like Sakura, but she was dressed in army green's, which to the present Klaud anyway made absolutely no sense.

"You're late Maylin." The man with the child Klaud in his arms stated in a displeased tone of voice. "Is he in there?"

"Hold your horses Tori!" Maylin opened the door and out came another young man, this one wearing large glasses and had black hair cut into a bowl style. Appropriate for the occasion he was dressed in a infinitely less terrifying vampire costume.

"Daddy~!" A Laughing Klaud struggled to get out of the man's named Tori's arms to hug the man who was apparently her father.

"Wait if that guy is my dad then who is...?"

The man who already had Klaud in his arms more closely resembled Syaoran Li, the man that Klaud knew as father, but at the same time there was a certain it factor that reminded her someone else as well.

"Hey Monkey!" The Man in the glasses and apparently thickly British if his accent could be believed ran over to the to pair on the porch and let the tiny Klaud hug him. "Hey sweet heart." Before shortly thereafter embracing the man holding his daughter with a kiss on the lips.

"Oh." It wasn't that Klaud had anything against that kind of couple, she herself was a little bi-curious as well. Rather having been raised by a straight couple, this was unexpected for her.

"Happy Halloween Harry." Tori replied breaking off the embrace and lovingly looking the man named Harry in the eyes.

"Yes yes your a loving couple and all that jazz now get a move on already, the Halloween Party at Klaud's school won't wait forever for you guys yah know!" Maylin stated as she traded her car keys for the house keys.

"You're not coming with us?" The man named Harry asked looking disappointed.

"Rebecca and Madison is already there, so it's not like there will be a problem, you three go have some fun." Maylin replied shooing the three away with her hand.

Klaud sneaked into the back of the jeep while the couple took it and used it to drive to the nearby elementary school. Inside the fruits of many arts classes by two hundred students were on display hanging on the walls. The couple of Tori and Harry zeroed in one woman dressed as the bride of Frankenstein and another dressed in a artist's smock.

"Oi Harry, Tori. How's my Adorable little clown doing this evening?" Madison bending over to Klaud and tapping her on her nose.

"Big Sis Madi! Big Sis Rebbe!" Klaud shouted stretching over to the two older women.

"Klaud I told you already we're your..."

"Hush you!" Madison interrupted Rebecca by holding her finger to Rebecca's mouth. "Tonight is Halloween and we get to be whatever we want, and tonight I wanna be Klaud's big sister!" Madison eagerly picked Klaud up and held her in the air above her.

"Bloody sis-con." Rebecca stated shaking her head. "Speaking of sisters do you know what happened to Maylin?"

"You mean my no good baby sister would rather go and hang out with some random Private in our house than hang out with her own family?" Tori stated in a clearly dissatisfied voice.

"Figures." Rebecca stated with a bitter smile on her features.

Klaud was confused, she never saw her sisters look so... happy before.

Well Madison maybe but it was a different kind of happy than what she was use to. Then Klaud saw a familiar looking object be sent flying through the window, a smoke bomb. Everything after that happened so fast Klaud couldn't process it, men with guns speaking Russian, Rebecca and Madison taking the vanguard while Harry and Tori trying to evacuate the students, Maylin coming in from behind the soldiers shooting them in their backs. Then one Soldier got lucky and got both Tori and Harry and took them both down. Down but not out, those were tranquilizer rifles, they were just unconscious. But Maylin had driven into the young her the evils of guns, how they were only good for hurting people, she had no idea what was happening. All that she knew for certain was that they were down and they weren't getting back up after they got hit by those things. Then, the little girl dressed up as a circus clown screamed. She screamed so loud that her magical power that shouldn't have seen the light of day for another five years came out in the most violent of releases, magical power so great that the cards in the pocket of Tori came flying out, magical power so strong that it overrode the pre-existing magic circle of Tori and changed it to match the little girl. Two Cards came to Klaud's side, Fiery and Arrow, combined together to create a bow that burned red, much like the one Klaud created to use against Rebecca, but glowed brighter with so much more power, too much power, way too much power. "LEAVE MY DADDY'S ALONE!"

"STOP IF YOU FIRE THAT!"

But Klaud's future self pleas fell on deaf ears. The Arrow released a huge torrent of fire with sufficient force that it pushed forward those present, Klaud received the full blunt of her own attack and was blinded for a few minuets. When she could see again the school was gone, everything within a certain direction had been reduced to a stretch of molten material all the way to the horizon.

"Where... Where are they?" Klaud asked, having not seen what happened to the two men who were apparently her parents.

"Klaud!" Madison pushed herself out from a pile of ash. "Rebecca! Harry! Tori! Maylin!" Upon seeing Klaud Madison rushed over to her and hugged her.

Maylin stumbled into the area, holding her hand over her face where a large swath of flesh had been burned off.

"Madison, Rebecca, Klaud!" Then Maylin looked around the area. "Where's Tori and Harry!?"

"They were there." Rebecca stated, frozen in fear, Madison was shielding the students that time, Maylin was outside, but Rebecca, Rebecca saw it all. "Regrowth is a miraculous magic that can even revive the dead." Rebecca collapsed to her feat as she muttered that. "But there is two requirements, the first is that the person must have died within twenty four hours." Rebecca gulped before she continued. "And second, there must be something left of the body to restore."

There was nothing, both Harry and Tori were burnt to ashes and spread on the wind. Klaud killed her own parents.

* * *

Klaud snapped back to reality with stunning clarity. She was exhausted, every Psion she had to spare should have been brutally sucked out of her, she was traumatized. And yet, she screamed, she screamed as loudly as she did that night all those years ago, she screamed loud enough to break the glass of the hotel. A pained, pitiful scream of a broken creature who was dying.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: She won't, they did that already, and they already took out all of the No Head Dragon operatives. She'll be fine.

Duked: And you thought the last one was harsh. But Don't worry, healing and recovering will be the next chapter.


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's Note** : Hmm. No Reviews, well that's understandable considering the warning I dropped about the feels last chapter. So Spoiler alert in case you didn't actually read that chapter: Klaud killed her birth parents by mistake when she was six years old, and was then adopted by Sakura who is her grandmother. So yah... Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 25: Magical Health Education: Traumatic Magic Deficit Disorder

After finishing their work outside Maylin and Rebecca had both retreated into a bar, and as Maylin noted, although Rebecca had ordered a drink, she had yet to drink from it. Like wise, Rebecca noted that Maylin wasn't wearing her eye patch today, revealing a huge swath of chard black flesh on her face in the process.

"You're not drinking tonight Rebecca?" Maylin asked as she downed her fourth glass of water.

"Says the one who hasn't even ordered yet." Rebecca replied looking at Maylin suspiciously.

"I don't need alcohol to desensitize myself. I learned how to deal with lost quite some time ago." Maylin stated in melancholic tone of voice.

"Maylin, Rebecca are you in here?" Answering her own question, Madison came inside the bar and quickly locked eyes with her sisters. "Oh there you are. In here everyone!" Madison subsequently led a group of first high students into the bar before sitting down with Rebecca.

But Mayumi wasn't sitting, she was looming, or trying to anyway, walking over to the table where Madison and Rebecca were sitting she slammed her hands down and glared.

"I tolerated the abuse you put Klaud through, writing it off as family business, but now I learn that you put her life in danger, you've deliberately drove her mad, and you put not only this competition but every life in here in danger. So as one of Klaud's friends I would like a explanation as to what is going on here!" To Mayumi's shout, Rebecca took out her wallet and pulled out a folded up picture.

The three of them, with two men one with black hair and the other with brown holding what looked like a infantile Klaud and presumably at a carnival based on all the clown make up they were wearing. Then Rebecca finally downed the contents of her glass before taking a deep breath.

"Tell me something, have we ever told you about Klaud's parents before?" After a few minuets of explanation the group were horrified, if not a little bit confused.

"I see, so these two men, Harry Reed Kinomoto, and Tori Reed Kinomoto, are Klaud's parents." Tatsuya stated as he examined the photo. In truth, he, who is part of the latest generation of test tube baby magicians has no right to act surprise about learning about a couple who made practical civilian use of Genetic engineering to conceive a child had no room to act surprised here. "So when your mother said that she's Klaud's mother..."

"Well. She gave birth to her, and she raised her after her parents were killed." Maylin stated sounding depressed. "It's almost like a bad joke to think that a Coulrophobe like Klaud could go a Carnival." Mari stated looking at the photo on the table.

"Funny you should say that, Klaud use to love clowns." A Teary eyed Madison took the photo and looked at it fondly tears starting to well up inside. "So much so that she use to spend every Halloween dressed like one." And there was the kicker. It wasn't clowns that Klaud was afraid of, it was herself. "I never thought the clothes I made for her would end up being used for this."

Whenever Klaud cursed clowns calling them devil demonic hell spawn that should go back to where they belong, she was cursing herself instead. She's been living the past ten years of her life carrying a intense self hatred without realizing it.

"On the subject, there was always something that always bothered me about you Maylin." Tatsuya stated eyeing his former commanding officer, and more specifically the eye patch sitting on the bar suspiciously. "But if you got that during the mess you were just talking about, then it would make sense."

"You mean the scar I got the night I failed to keep my family safe and my brother and his husband got reduced to a pile of ash blowing on the wind? Yah, for the record, it still hurts like hell too." Maylin stated as she took another drink, if Tatsuya's memory served him that was her way of ending a conversation with post haste. "So what are they planning to do with the games?"

"Basically, seeing as how no one was hurt and no damages have been done, the judging committee are willing to drop the whole thing, so long as your family leaves the area immediately." Mayumi stated with a sad tone in her voice.

"And if we don't? Hypothetically." Rebecca asked tapping her finger.

"They'll want First High to resign completely and forfeit all the victories up until now." Katsuho replied from his vantage point of a seat off in the far corner of the room.

"Hmm. Which means that if we can delay our lift off for a little bit, we can get those guys that were trying to kill everyone to stick around for a bit as well." Maylin stated scratching her chin.

"Well that's certainly true, but is that really a priority for you guys right now? I mean, after going through something like that isn't Klaud going to be too badly traumatized to use magic or something?" Mari asked looking between the three sisters. Not too long ago, a young girl almost fell to her death during the Mirage bat rookie match and now she couldn't channel Psion's properly.

"Not for us no, believe me, we are going to leave tonight without even giving Klaud time to go to the celebratory party your school is planning on throwing. Which means that you have till the morning when they announce the results to act upon this." Maylin stated tossing Tatsuya a disk. "Just don't ask where we got it."

"But believe me, it would be nice If Klaud had something like being unable to use magic." Rebecca stated leaning back and rubbing her temples fending off a incoming headache. "But it's just the opposite. Klaud can't use magic because she has gone through a traumatic event, she can use magic, and has used it since a early age, because she had went through a extremely traumatizing event that flooded her nerves with pushions. That's the reason why I had to take such extreme measures as building a series of C.A.D.'s to put into her and rigging them to burn her whenever she exceeded a certain Psion output." Rebecca stated tapping her fingers impatiently.

"That was you who did that?" This time it was Miyuki who spoke out, who immediately after her match was over and the situation explained to her she came rushing over here as made evident by the fact that she was still wearing her costume from Mirage bat.

"As opposed to what your family did to your brother?" Rebecca stated a knowing look in her eyes. "Tell me something little girl, which one of the two of us do you think acted more humanely?" To that statement, Miyuki could only gasp and look away in shame.

"'Limits her psion output?' During the entrance exams Klaud's psion count was as high as Tatsuya's, you mean to say that she was holding back?" Mayumi asked in complete shock.

"Let me put it to you this way. Your welcome, for keeping your entire school from being turned into a hundred foot deep crater." Rebecca stated with her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"To the thankless people who do what is necessary." Madison stated before she downed the contents of her glass.

Without saying anything else the three sisters left the bar. Outside in the courtyard Klaud was already wearing her flight suit and was securing her suitcase to the side of Inari's saddle. One notable addition that was simply strapped onto the side of it was 'The Book of Klaud.' It was a large, old Fashion looking book that was mostly red with gold features in particular the large white tiger on the front with golden wings. It was her book, a spell book, but before it was hers it belonged to her father. Just like how her cards were now the only thing that she had left of him. The book was created as a way of keeping Cards who did not have a master going haywire, a way to clamp down on their accumulated magical power so that they wouldn't needlessly waste it. Though consequentially, they also couldn't get out of the book either, not without help, it was like a prison. But what choice did Klaud have, until she learned how to get her rampaging magical power under control she couldn't risk one of them going berserk like way back when.

"You're not coming to the party?" Having once again sneaked up behind Klaud was none other that Masaki Ichijou.

"Turns out hotel proprietors get testy when you turn their property inside out." Klaud replied sarcastically.

"Which begs the question of why you were rampaging last night?" Masaki asked having capitalized on Klaud's sarcasm.

"I guess... I was just tired of feeling scared of my sis... my own family." Klaud replied a bit shaky sounding.

"And you're not afraid of them anymore?" Masaki asked cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"I'm terrified. I'm absolutely terrified of them." Klaud replied as she visibly shook. "For as long as I can remember, the three of them have tormented me, experimented on me and stuffed me into mind numbing terrifying outfits meant to capitalized on my Clourophobia at every turn. So even if I now know and understand the reasons behind them doing that to me..."

"You still can't change the fact that you're scared can you?" To Masaki's question, Klaud could only nod. "Then don't worry about it, whether you fail or succeed you'll have the same result anyway, your family will still be your family, and things will still be awkward between you lot. With that in mind, isn't it better to simply grit your teeth and muddle through?" To Masaki's word's of wisdom, Klaud could only quietly nod her head.

"Klaud are you ready to go?"

Masaki looked behind him, Masaki saw four women that he couldn't believe one was the mother of the others dressed in matching flight suits with not so matching mounts. Oh sure Masaki could tell upon examination that they followed same formula as the one that Klaud was treating as a pack mule right now, but that was where the similarities ended. In the lead was a huge lion with white colored wings and silver jewelry with red rubies around his neck and around his ankles. Next to him was a grizzled beast of griffin that looked like he was completely covered in scars rather than stripes like Inari. Following behind him was a machine with the shape of a griffin with two huge turbines instead of wings that he couldn't believe was created by an ancient magician. The last one was the most ridiculous looking of all, a giant pink stuffed toy with wings.

" _What's with this family and it's outrageous difference in tastes!?_ " Masaki couldn't help but mentally scream at this observation.

"Klaud sweetie, are you ready to go yet?" Sakura asked looking down at her shortest daughter.

"Before we do, if I could have a word with my sisters please." Klaud stated in the melancholic tone she had adopted since the evening.

"Look Klaud..." Maylin let out a deep sigh, sounding like one who was about to talk about a very difficult topic. "We understand if you don't wanna ride with us, we do, it's not like learning the truth will take back ten years worth of scars. We'll just go on ahead, if it's all the same to you."

"No, no it's not that. It's just that, as long as we're trying to mend the old wounds, I never hated any of you, and my feelings for you were never fear. I was afraid of the Soldier, the Mad Scientist, the fashion designer, I never wanted any of that." Although she was trying to hold her tears back, Klaud was still starting to well up. "I just wanted my sisters back." At this, the three older sisters swooped in and hugged the younger girl, and they let loose their tears together.

After having that moment to cry together, the Kinomoto family began making their way to the road leading to the premises. There they were met with a crowd of students from first high, led by none other than Mayumi the resident student council president.

"So Klaud, you're really leaving eh?" Mayumi asked with a bit of a sad look on her features.

"Yeah, I'm probably gonna be home until next year starts. Well although I say that since I'm a Course 2 I'm not missing out on anything just by getting my work sent home for me." Klaud stated as she awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

"That's odd, ignoring how hard it is to get stuff past all of the security buffs surrounding your village, isn't it a little strange for the school to be sending stuff halfway across the country like that?" Mayumi pondered looking a little concerned.

"It's not a problem. We worked out a deal in trade." Rebecca walked up on the back of her mechanical beast smirking knowingly. "Starting next year, just call me Professor Kinomoto."

"EHH!?" Was the collective response of those present.

Of course the school board would be looking for someone with expertise in both Ancient magic and Magical engineering for the Third course, and Rebecca was tops in her field. But they already knew how Rebecca treated Klaud, and she liked her.

"Oi Shiba Dog." Maylin stated with a stern look of disapproval. "Why are you still here? Didn't I give you something to do?"

"I still have some time before that, I intended to go to the dance first." Tatsuya replied calmly, but Maylin didn't look too happy.

"Do I have to make it an order Major?" Maylin asked with stern disapproval in her voice.

"No mam. But I suspect I'll need a ride to get there." Tatsuya stated in a defeated tone of voice.

Towards this end, Maylin threw him a set of car keys.

"I'll come back for it when we drop Klaud off again, bring it back with a full battery."

* * *

Inside of a meeting house within a certain China town district, a group of middle age men were gathered with looks of relief on their faces and glasses of alcohol at their sides.

"This was a close one. After everything we went through, First High gets booted out of the competition thanks to of all people the one we were the most worried about."

"No matter how you look at it, this was a unbelievable stroke of luck for us."

"I concur. This was a close one."

Then the sound of ringing like a telephone echoed throughout the room, before one of the screens picked up the transmission and turned on, only to reveal a black box with a flat green line in front.

"Hello gentlemen." Though the voice was distorted and came with no image, the people there recognized the caller ID as their most direct superior.

"Li-san. To what do we owe the Pleasure?"

"Oh I just called to congratulate you on your successful mission to sabotage the Nine School's competition." Suddenly the men in the room gave a collective sigh of relief. Usually, he only called if he was mad at someone. "So tell me, who was the favorite from first high to take Gold, Silver and Bronze?"

"That ancient magician brat Klaud Reed. Ignoring the stupefying feat of entering every single rookie event, she also won most of them, only to turn around and stupidly go on rampage and ruin it all." The men at the table had a laugh at that.

"Yeah, my little girl is the light of my life." They suddenly stopped laughing. "And you tried to kill her." Suddenly, the sound of the various doors leading into the room being locked echoed, and the security gate on the window leading outside crashed shut. "The truth is, I would like to devise a even more cruel punishment than the generators my daughter Rebecca created." Speaking of whom, it became quickly apparent that the group's surgically and magically enhanced guards had already abandoned them. "But sadly I'm not that creative. And there's a impatient young man outside that you also pissed off, so I don't think he's willing to wait anyway. So I'll let you talk to him for a while." With the call suddenly ending on that note, a new voice took over.

"Good evening, members of the No Head Dragons." Was the hate filled words of one Tatsuya Shiba. "Understand something. Tonight you don't die for the whims of some gangster, you die for the crime of turning your fangs against my sister." Saying that, the Security shutter was suddenly turned into mist, the gangsters turned the table over hoping to provide cover while two of them went to the doors. The echo's of their screams outlasted their bodies.

"Wait Wait Wait!" Saying that, the obstructing table disappeared revealing the gangsters cowering behind it. Two of them went for the wall underneath the window, one didn't make it. "This isn't our fault! We were just following orders! You want our boss who told us to sabotage the Nine School's Competition!"

"Trying to save yourselves by giving me the name of the same man who sold you out? How pathetic."

"No! Even higher than him! I'll give you it all! The name of the man who stands at the head of the organization!" The only man to not move since ducking behind the table screamed while being extra cowardly. "I'm listening."

"No before we go any further I want your assurance that our lives will be spared!"

"Fine, fine. You have it. Now give, me the name!"

"It's Richard! Richard Sun is the head of the No Head Dragons!"

A odd feeling of relief went through the body of the thug who was hiding underneath the window. At least it was his head on the chopping block. As soon he started to get up to find a way out, he suddenly turned into mist.

"B-But you said you'd spare us...?"

"I lied."

* * *

Tatsuya drove Maylin's truck back to the hotel. He had to admit that thing had some serious horse power but he was lucky that the No Head Dragons were camped out nearby. Thus after sending the information that he learned about the Dragons out to the proper authorities, he rushed back to the hotel were the members of the Nine School's participants were gathered together.

"Firstly, for their outstanding once in a decade performance under trying circumstances, we the committee of Judges hereby award this year's first place trophy to first high." Retsu Kudou stated, handing the large first place trophy to Mari as she walked forward. "And for individual congratulations, Our MVP's for the main events, Mayumi Saegusa for her peerless marksman ship." A medal was placed around Mayumi's neck as she gave a light bow to Retsu. "Katsuho Jyuumonji, for his outstanding performance during Monolith Code." Katsuho bent down much lower, largely because he was extremely tall, and Retsu put the medal around his neck. "And Now to First high's Most Promising Rookies. The First MPR Award, for his unmatched magical engineering skills, and superb performance during the Monolith Code match, Tatsuya Shiba." Tatsuya it seems arrived just in time to receive some accommodations. Thus walked onto the stage, and humbly accepted the metal as it was placed around his neck. "Secondly, for her sweeping performance during the Rookie events, Klaud Reed. Who unfortunately, due to outstanding circumstances could not be here today." The audience applauded Klaud anyway despite her absence, there can be no doubt that she achieved celebrity status these days passed, but the stress of the games had gotten to her and hence no one held a grudge against her for suddenly going berserk. "That will be all I'm afraid. Good night everyone and please enjoy the rest of your night." Bowing to the crowd, Retsu walked off the stage.

Tatsuya spent the next several hours dancing with the many girls in attendance from first high, apparently they all wanted to thank him for his efforts during the games. Likewise Miyuki ended up consoling a sad Masaki who was given the understanding that he wouldn't be seeing Klaud who he admired again for a while. When the night neared the end both siblings found themselves out in the courtyard that Klaud nearly destroyed.

"Do you think she'll be alright?" Miyuki asked looking at herself in the fountain.

"Klaud is the most resilient person we've ever had the pleasure of know, I sincerely doubt that there's any way that she won't be alright." Tatsuya stated, as if he was simply recalling a fact. "But I don't believe that she will be alright soon, she has received a huge blow on top of many huge blows a few of which has been quite recent. It will take time."

"Then for tonight..." Miyuki turned to face her brother and held out her hand. "Let us show Klaud our confidence and not worry about her." Taking Miyuki's hand, Tatsuya and Miyuki subsequently began dance the rest of the night away together.


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's Note** : I am feeling better today if anyone's wondering, but my brief bout with sickness has put me considerably behind in my writing, on top of that I'm going to have to start writing chapters for Issues again today so yah, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 26: Basic Magical Training: Magic Control

Inside of a certain village, that only exists inside of the confines of a special magical barrier that twists and turns it in every possible direction, a young looking woman, wearing a large black eye patch was outside of the luxurious looking mansion that she was staying at, chopping away at a pile of wood. Honestly speaking, she was just trying to calm herself down, it was a long time since she was back home, longer still since she was back home with her family whole again. She had the right to feel nervous.

"Oi Maylin!" Suddenly a holographic screen appeared beside Maylin, on it depicted the glasses wearing form of Rebecca. "Klaud's awake, now come inside and get some breakfast already!"

Maylin brought the wood inside the living room of the Mansion, there she spotted Klaud, Madison and Rebecca on a nearby couch, sharing a box of shredded wheat with fruity centers cereal.

"Thanks for waiting for me guys." Maylin snapped in sarcasm, before bringing the wood pile over to the fire place. Admittedly it was a bit early in the day to start a fire, which is the reason why she intended to wait until the evening. For now she joined her sisters around the table and pored herself some breakfast too. "So what's on the agenda today?"

"Well, they're planning on sending me my work from school later today, so I gotta spend a few hours doing that." Klaud explained while she ate her breakfast. "After that maybe the four of us can hang out and do something fun together?" At this, the three older sisters looked at each other with a understanding look. Three sisters, three very different ideas of what fun was. With that they all held out their fists.

"""Rock, Paper, Scissors!"""

* * *

Later that afternoon, Maylin was getting a clay pigeon thrower ready, and Klaud was looking a little bit uncomfortable.

"I don't know about this Maylin." Klaud stated as she nervously looked at the gun type C.A.D. that was sitting on top of the tree stub that Maylin was using to chop wood earlier that morning.

"This isn't too different from the speed shooter event during the NSC Klaud, and if memory serves you creamed that." Maylin stated cocking a brow at Klaud.

"But even then I didn't use a gun, they make me feel... uncomfortable." Understandable too, considering it was Maylin herself who taught Klaud the evils of Guns at a young and impressionable age.

"This is understandable. So tell me Klaud, have you ever heard of a Magic spell called Gram demolition?" Maylin asked prompting Klaud to nod, recalling that this type of magic was one of Tatsuya's primary weapons during the Monolith code matches. "So then you are also aware that despite it's impressive name it simply concentrates psions into a little package and shot out like a bullet." For someone with a large psion count but low magical control this was good training. "If yah don't wanna do this then you could always play wex-stones with Rebecca or dress up with Madison." Both equally terrifying aspects.

Well Klaud never did get the chance to enjoy the NSC since she was stuck inside of those damnable clown costumes the whole time, thus she picked up one of the Gun C.A.D.s.

"Rebecca can you tune that thing for her?"

"Easily, but since we're doing psion control training then should I disable one of her internal C.A.D.s too?" Rebecca asked as she already got out her tablet.

"I don't see why not." Maylin stated shrugging her shoulders.

First Rebecca pulled Klaud over to her by her arm, and after feeling her arm up for a minuet found the C.A.D she herself implanted there and squeezed down on a button, causing the red lines to appear before dimming out again. Next Rebecca plugged the tablet into the the gun and had Klaud hold it, fine tuning it so that the connection was within a 0.3 percent room for error, a personal best for her.

"Alright Klaud. Give it a try." Holding the gun up and pointing it into the air, the first volley of clay disks were shot through the air, and Klaud took aim with her C.A.D and fired, and was sent flying backwards into the wall behind her in the process.

"Ow!"

"""Klaud!""" Immediately the three older sisters rushed over to Klaud and bent down beside her. "Are you Okay!?" Not waiting for a answer to Maylin's question, Rebecca used her time card on Klaud to fix her body.

"Okay that was not fun, what is with that gun anyway?" Klaud asked rubbing her head where it met the wall earlier.

"The gun is standard issue." Rebecca stated holding up the sparking and smashed weapon in question. "Or at least it was. I think the one who needs to be fine tuned here is Klaud." Rebecca stated scratching her chin.

"Well in any case no point in leaving this off." Rebecca held up Klaud's arm again and turned the C.A.D inside it back on. "Me and Maylin can work to fix this." Rebecca stated holding up the ruined weapon in question.

"Great, while you two are doing that I can take Klaud for a little bit of fun on the town!" Madison stated grabbing a hold of Klaud's arm.

"Sure, Sure go ahead." Rebecca stated waving the pair off. "Great then that means that I can go and take Klaud shopping!" Madison stated smiling happily, prompting a look of terror on Klaud's eyes.

* * *

Even though Madison said she was taking Klaud shopping, she actually owned this particular fashion boutique, so really it couldn't be said that she was buying anything for Klaud since she actually owned everything. None the less the two went inside and Madison picked out several outfits for Klaud to try on while she waited in the cramped changing room. Klaud's nervousness started to disappear once the clothes she had picked out for her were dropped inside the cubicle. A few minuets later Klaud came out of cubicle wearing a Neapolitan colored sweater dressed.

"Oh Klaud you look so adorable in that outfit!" Madison stated happily while clapping her hands together.

"I forgot that you make clothes for normal people too Madison." Klaud sighed letting out her feelings of exasperation in the process.

"Of course I do Klaud! The only people interested in clown costumes are carnivals and horror movie directors." Madison stated smiling happily at Klaud who was already going back into the changing stall.

"So you admit you're horrifying." Klaud stated as the Neapolitan sweater was draped over the stall while Klaud tried on a new outfit.

"Can you ever forgive me Klaud?" Suddenly dropping the happy mood that she was trying to create, Madison finally came out and said what was on her mind. "I spent a lot of time putting you into very difficult positions didn't I? Even more so over the last couple of weeks."

"True, you have put me through something pretty difficult these past ten years. I doubt I'll ever fully recover from the scars left behind." As Madison thought, she was beyond forgiveness. "But you weren't thinking about the long term were you? What you were thinking at the time was 'I need to keep her going right here, right now.'" Emerging from the changing room, Klaud was now wearing a white sundress with black lace trim and a large black bow as it's belt. "You didn't decide to just stuff me inside a Clown Costume at random points did you. No you did so when I was recklessly charging forward into a situation that I wasn't scared of even though I should have been, and because I was wearing one of your costumes I was scared and I was on guard. Not just that, but everyone of those costumes were made out of sturdy material with extra padding that you couldn't cut through with half baked weapons or magic." Donning a honest face that was legitimately happy, Klaud continued with her praise of her big sister. "So thank you Madison, for saving the life of your ungrateful little sister."

Madison suddenly began crying tears of joy, and Klaud's gentle big sister ran over to her and hugged the young girl as hard as she could. The two Kinomoto sisters walked back to the Mansion that bore their name.

* * *

In the mean time however, the remaining two Kinomoto sisters were working on a new Gun type C.A.D.

"So are you sure this is gonna work?" Maylin asked looking at Rebecca who was installing Klaud's key into the weapon.

"The gun didn't work because it couldn't keep up with Klaud's psion count. But it's a different story if the weapon has a built in super conducting material, like that used in our staffs." Rebecca explained gesturing to Klaud's key.

"I get that, but why are we using Klaud's staff? Doesn't she kinda need that?" Maylin asked pointing out a very logical point of view.

"Both Ancient magic and Modern magic carry their own separate benefits, but if you manage to successfully modernize ancient magic, to combine the speed and efficiency of one and the brute power and versatility of the other then the end result is gonna be something truly terrifying." Rebecca explained closing the case on the rifle type weapon.

"Even though you say that, isn't Klaud herself a type of fusion of ancient and Modern magic? Being an ancient magician with all those C.A.D implants in her? Well even though I say that the only thing those things are doing is hampering her magical power." Maylin stated shrugging her shoulders, the truth being that she was never really one for the whole technical aspect of Rebecca's little mad scientist projects.

"Well, it would be more accurate to say that it's the only thing they're doing right now." Rebecca stated as she picked the weapon up and gauged how it would fit into Klaud's small frame.

"What do you mean by that?" Maylin asked looking at Rebecca suspiciously.

"Tell me something Maylin, what did you think that I was planning to do with the C.A.D.s once the first phase was done with? What purpose would they hold once they are no longer bottle necking Klaud's power?" Rebecca asked looking at Maylin suspiciously.

"Remove them." Maylin replied as if she was speaking of a obvious solution.

"That is no long possible I'm afraid." Putting the weapon down, Rebecca picked up her tablet and scrolled through it revealing a picture of Klaud, more specifically Klaud's arm, even more specifically Klaud's arm that had been cut open to reveal a C.A.D inside.

"Hmm. I always wondered a little what they looked like." Maylin stated looking at the photo.

"After the heck she's been through, I performed a examination on her. They've fused with her nervous system. We can't remove them without damaging her body." Rebecca stated a bit of dread in her voice.

"I'm not a scientist Rebecca. You will have to be more specific than that." Maylin stated growing annoyed.

"I don't know how it happened either, but it would seem that Klaud's ludicrous psion count has fused together her C.A.D.s with her body on a Eidos level." Rebecca explained scratching her chin. "Well that's fine, because I never intended to remove them to begin with."

"So you've claimed, so what are they for anyway?" Maylin asked growing annoyed.

"Artificial Calculation Area." Rebecca stated smirking knowingly.

"'Artificial Calculation Area?' You mean like what Miyu did to her kid?" Maylin asked cocking a brow at Rebecca.

"This is a little bit different. What Miyu did was rewrite her son's brain to have a larger calculating area. What I've done is add to Klaud's brain." Rebecca stated taking a seat.

"Doesn't that sound even more reckless?" Maylin raised a good point, you can't just go around jabbing things into people's bodies and expect them to be alright.

"Which is the reason, why I thoroughly tested the technology first." Rebecca stated waving her finger back and forth like a lecturer.

"What are you talking about?" Maylin asked cocking a suspicious brow at Rebecca.

"What did you think I was doing when I was working for the Asian Government?" Rebecca asked sounding annoyed.

"Everything you could to make their lives difficult?" Maylin asked sarcastically.

"That too, but more importantly they provided me with a unlimited supply of human test subjects that I could experiment on with my C.A.D implants technology. True a large number of them died quite horribly, but after that there were many survivors with now dramatically larger calculation areas." Rebecca stated looking quite satisfied with herself.

"And they call me a monster. I assume that there's a point to all of this?" Maylin asked looking at Rebecca with annoyance.

"Even though Klaud has the power to maneuver a large number of cards at once, she cannot, because her natural calculation area is too small. With this, Klaud should be able to access a larger portion of her potential." Rebecca explained before she picked up the weapon she was working on. "Come on. Klaud should be back by now."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Oh so someone did actually read that chapter, the truth is I just thought you guys brought it up, read my note and went nope. Well thank yah for saying so.


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's Note** : GAH I SCREWED UP! My apologies for the long delay but I hadn't realized that I never post this CHAPTER! Read, Review, Favorite and enjoy!

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Chapter 27: Basic Magical Training: Focus Control

Klaud first breathed out, then in, she pulled up her weapon, a new gun type C.A.D. that was made using her staff, one that hopefully would not explode. In case it did explode this time however, she already had used anchoring magic to firmly root herself to the ground. Klaud fired the gun as the Clay pigeon was launched into the air again, and was immediately grateful for whatever reinforcements Rebecca put into her legs, based purely on the pain that was now coming from them.

"This is starting to get annoying Maylin." Rebecca stated as she used the Time Card to repair what she strongly suspected to be Klaud's fractured legs. "Her psion count is simply too high for conventional methods to work." On that note Rebecca's wrist watch suddenly went off, signalling that her turn for quality time with Klaud had come. "Besides, I believe that it is our turn now anyway."

Klaud audibly gulped when she heard that. Imagination was never Maylin's forte but Rebecca? She always seemed to have something new up her sleeve whenever 'Quality time' came around.

* * *

Appropriately enough, Rebecca had brought Klaud in for her most wildly unexpected stunt yet.

"It's your move Klaud." Rebecca stated, sitting opposite of Klaud with a chess board in between them and a glass of apple cidar in her hand.

"That's probably the strongest drink I've seen in your hand since we've gotten home." Klaud stated as she nervously moved a pawn piece forward.

"I'm trying to sober up." Rebecca replied as she took a sip from the glass and moved Rook piece forward.

"Not that I'm complaining, but don't you usually prefer playing wex stones?" Klaud asked while she idly moved one of her Knight Pieces.

"I'm not aloud to anymore." Rebecca stated sounding a tad bit bitter Rebecca replied moving her bishop piece. "Bad sportsmanship they said."

"You do kinda have a habit of destroying the board before anyone else can get a turn in." Klaud pointed out laughing nervously a little bit.

"Only because, however Ironic that may be, I'm actually good with Gravity magic, but not with lower tier magic." Rebecca stated before she took a long drink from her glass.

"Really? You?" Klaud asked as she took the bottle of apple cider Rebecca had brought with her and pored both her sister and herself a glass.

"Gravity magic works by taking one, single variable, and changing it. That is easy, but it requires the ridiculous amount of power that our family is known for, which is why it's considered tenth tier magic. But things like creating life, elemental manipulation, energy alteration, that kind of stuff I'm not good with." Rebecca admitted increasingly bitter sounding.

"But all that stuff you made, like the Nugan fruit..." Klaud stated trying to reconcile what she knew with what she was hearing.

"You mean my copy and paste magic?" Rebecca replied in a dry tone of voice.

"Look Klaud, at the end of the day I'm more like a modern magician than I am a ancient one. Just look at Cyber." To this end, Rebecca directed Klaud's attention to what looked like a small mechanical toy that bore a loose resemblance to Inari's toy form who was currently holding a note pad with a pencil.

"She has a point you know." The synthesized voice of the toy replied.

"It isn't just what kinds of Magic I can use without my cards either. I act like a modern magician too. Using my own family members as lab rats. Placing my faith in something silly like science instead of actual people..." Point of interest, it seems that Rebecca actually became quite emotional when she wasn't stone cold drunk.

"That is true, you have put a lot of faith into things that are easy for you to understand. You have to. After what I did to our family, you can't get close to us without being afraid of loosing us, and you can't trust us without being afraid of us hurting you, so you rely on the bottle to try and simplify that relationship." To Klaud's sympathy filled words, Rebecca slapped both sides of Klaud's face with her hands and held her on her feet by her head.

"Klaud Reed Kinomoto don't you dare Blame yourself for how screwed up I am do I make myself clear!?" Still holding Klaud in that uncomfortable way Rebecca scolded her in that scathing unforgiving tone of voice that wasn't making room for compromises.

"Yesh Rebecca." Klaud replied with her face all mushed up. Now visibly annoyed Rebecca sat back down with her cheek pressed against her fist. "But my point is, I'm not the only one who knows what it feels like to be hurt by close family members."

"Thanks in no small part to me." Rebecca stated, finally remembering that she was playing a game of chess and that it was her turn and thus moved her queen piece.

"That is true, but I strongly suspect that if not for you I wouldn't have anything good in my life either." Klaud stated wearing a bitter smile while she moved one of her pawn pieces. "Point of interest, it seems that I'm the biological daughter of two men. So the first question that comes to mind is, how is that possible? The answer to that question is obvious: they got a geneticist to help them. The question that comes after that is, who did they trust to perform that kind of procedure? It's not even like they went to the Fourth Laboratory for help. Therefore, the only thing that I can think of, is that Tori went to his reliable little sister for help." At this Klaud promptly clapped her hands together and bowed her head full of sincerity. "So thank you Rebecca, for the wonderful life you've given me, full of love, happiness, pain and sorrow alike."

At this, Rebecca started to laugh, and cry, but mostly laugh, as if letting out a large amount of unprocessed information all at once. Finally, once Rebecca was done having her fit she took her king piece and toppled it over.

"Oh my. It looks like I've lost, so do you want to play something else instead?" Rebecca asked, genuinely smiling for the first time that Klaud could ever remember.

After that, the two of them went home and played on a game station for a while.

* * *

In the mean time though, the pair's remaining siblings had a little project of their own to work on.

"Carbon nanotube liner, Friction-less coating, spider silk. Madison what in Clow Reed's name are you doing?" Maylin asked trying to piece together the puzzle that Madison was putting together in her studio.

"I'm making a new battle costume for Klaud!" Madison stated with a look of deep joy on her features.

"Another one?" Maylin asked, looking around at the many mannequins Madison had around the studio, each wrapped with one of the costumes Madison made for Klaud, and each one meticulously preserved inside of a glass case. "Haven't you learned your lesson by now?"

"Mm Hmm. So that's why Klaud is gonna be the one to help me design it!" Madison stated in happy tone of voice that made it sound like she was going to break out into song and dance at any moment now.

"Hmm. I guess I never was one for the whole, fashionista thing." Maylin stated looking around the room.

"Oh Maylin. Everyone has a fashion thing! Fashion is as much about what you feel comfortable in as what you think you'll look good in! There's no point in clothing that you can't move in, or that doesn't obediently fulfill it's duties like keeping warm in the winter, cool in the summer, emphasizing your attractiveness, or your modesty." Madison followed up that comment by skipping over behind Maylin and wrapped her arms around her neck. "I can always do a little something for you if you like. Hmm?"

"I'm afraid that I will have to refuse." Maylin stated pulling herself away from Madison. "You damnable perverted sis-con!" Although Maylin spat those words out with dissatisfaction, Madison was laughing all the same.

* * *

After Video Games Rebecca and Klaud were working on Klaud's school work together. Even though the word working was being used, Rebecca was laughing her head off every other odd couple of minuets.

"And these people call themselves the country's leading Magical academy!? Oh my sides! My Sides are Splitting!" A loud thump accompanied Rebecca landing on the floor, rolling on the ground laughing.

"Oh come on, even I know it's not that bad." Klaud stated in a complaining tone of voice.

Hearing her computer ring, Klaud opened a video chat with Miyuki.

"Yo Miyuki! What's up?" Klaud asked happily while she waved her hand in front of the camera.

"Hey Klaud! How have you been?" Then her face wrinkled in confusion when she heard the sound of laughter. "And who is that I hear with you?"

"Uh... Rebecca." Klaud stated in a awkward sounding voice, prompting a long pause from Miyuki.

"Is that mad woman drunk again?" Miyuki asked looking confused.

"No... My homework is quite amusing see." Klaud stated awkwardly scratching the back of her head.

"Your... Homework is amusing...?" Miyuki asked quite confused, seeing as how she was someone who had received the very same homework.

"At this point I think, it might be safer for everyone to stay in course one and two." Klaud let out a heavy sigh, realizing that for about a third of the school, happy, quiet peaceful days would be coming to a crashing end very, very soon. "So. Less depressing topic. How's everything going for school right now?"

"Right now the Thesis competition is the big thing." Miyuki stated, still mildly shocked at the sound of laughing coming from Rebecca at the moment, which had begun to die down.

"One minuet Miyuki. Rebecca." With this, Rebecca finally picked herself up off the ground. "I understand that you're still adjusting to sobriety, and that is all well and good. But I think we're going to be talking about something that you'll find very funny in a minuet, so to avoid insulting my friend, can you please go somewhere else and laugh your head off?" Klaud asked politely.

"I get it, I get it. Besides Madison wanted my help with something anyway." Leaving the two girls alone to chat over the computer, Klaud got down to business.

"Now what is it that you need my help with?"

"Well, The thesis competition is basically the written exam to the NSC's physical, think of it like a... magical science fair. Everyone is given the task of coming up with the most innovative world changing magical device or formula. It's meant to give a boost to the whole magical community." Miyuki stated, pausing every once and a while to think of the right way to put it.

"Cute. So has someone roped your brother into being their lab monkey, or is he just doing all the work again like back in the NSC?" Klaud stated, sounding un-amused that someone was bullying Tatsuya into doing a unreasonable amount of work again.

"Well, for now big brother is just working on the one that he thinks is the most promising. A..." Miyuki consulted a sheet of paper and squinted her eyes. "'Magical Thermonuclear Reactor.'"

"Thermonuclear Reactor...? Has your brother gone insane!? Those things were banned like a million years ago! For good reason!"

"No! No! It's different than that! I think? Look Big brother would never make something dangerous!" Klaud just shot Miyuki a dead pan stare. "Okay maybe he would but he said that it would revolutionize the lives of all mages!" Klaud's stare was punctuated by a eye-roll. "Oh I give up. Big brother you wanted to talk to Klaud about the Thesis competition right!?" To Miyuki's shout, the sound of subdued footsteps echoed down from the hallway and Tatsuya pulled up a chair beside Miyuki.

"Good evening Klaud..."

"What's this I hear about you trying to build a nuke!?" Klaud snapped cutting Tatsuya off in her impatience.

"Ah I see you misunderstood Miyuki. Well that's fair, the science is hard to understand. Here maybe you'll have better luck with the blueprints." Saying that, Tatsuya pushed a button on the console and a set of blue back ground charts appeared on Klaud's computer screen. Even though he called them blueprints, it would be more accurate to call them magical formula that was arranged in a circular sequence.

"One Pushion circling one Psion, Magi-matter Hydrogen created here, using part of Watery's formula." Klaud guessed as she moved her finger along the circle. "A huge circular ring, with Speed's formula, where everything gets crunched together into a big sunny ball." Now getting annoyed Klaud continued on the circle. "Contained here inside of Float's formula, where they undergo nuclear fusion producing a huge amount of psions in light and heat." Fury now in her voice, Klaud's finger was drawn to the fourth area. "Afterwards, Erase's forumla reduces the expended material back into raw Psions and Pushions and funnels it back into Watery!" Now infuriated, Klaud pushed the blueprints out of her way and grabbed hold of the screen to snarl at Tatsuya. "TATSUYA YOU RAT BASTARD! YOU STOLE MY CARDS AND MADE A GODDAMN NUKE WITH THEM!" Admittedly, they had anticipated a reaction like this, and so prepared for it.

"Yes. We had. But if you'd calm down a bit..." Hitting a red X at the top right of the screen, Tatsuya's plan was interrupted, and when she repeatedly denied the Shiba siblings attempts to call her back Klaud curled up on the couch and turned off her computer, officially cutting off communication with them.

"You look like you've been stabbed in the back." Walking back into the room Rebecca sat down next to Klaud and offered her a glass of apple cidar.

"Rebecca, in theory, what do you know about a Magical thermonuclear reactor?" Klaud asked sitting up and tentatively taking the glass.

"I wouldn't have too. I built one myself a while ago. Matter as we know it, is made of Protons and Electrons, they come together to create atoms, atoms make molecules, molecules make up everything else. Psions and Pushions exist on the plain of the mind, they are the mind's protons and electrons, the building blocks of it's atoms that makes it's molecules that make up our thoughts. So since we know what effects nuclear radiation has on our physical world, then what effects would psion radiation have on our mental world?" There was a sad look on Rebecca's face, like someone in mourning.

The look on Klaud's face was one of pure horror. Immediately she turned back on the Computer and made contact with Tatsuya and Miyuki again.

"Klaud!? Are you okay? You hung up kinda suddenly and... oh god you look like you've seen a ghost!" Miyuki stated, a look of worry and concern on her face.

"Miyuki, have you ever heard of a Man named Albert Einstein? He is the one who invented the first weapons of mass destruction, and after they were dropped on Japan, he named himself the Horseman of Death. Do you honestly think that this is the right era to go making something like this?" Klaud asked in a serious tone of voice.

"Big Brother, Klaud's calmed down, she wants to talk to you again!" Miyuki shouted to her far left. Tatsuya came back, intending to approach the situation a little more carefully than last time.

"Tatsuya you damned fool. Have you even bothered to read the atmosphere lately? Whatever you think you're building by making this thing, someone else is going to use it to smash it apart!" Klaud scolded, still angry that Tatsuya not only made this thing, but used her to make it.

"I intend for anyone to become a 'magician.' 'Magicians, are a species of slave created by humans.'" Tatsuya stated, echoing the phrase of a woman who although quite young, was also very wise in her choice of words. "Magic is a indispensable part of every day life. In every industry, there's a valued and appreciated hardworking magician ready and waiting to work themselves to death to keep the world paved with their bones flowing. But let me ask you this: what if it was possible for someone who isn't a magician to use magic? If you can store the magic sequences in something that isn't a human brain." Klaud instinctively reached for the side of her belt where normally there would be a pouch full of cards. "And provide a alternate source of Psions to power it, then it becomes possible to create a magician out of someone who was not. That is what I'm trying to do Klaud." Klaud understood now. She understood it all.

"I understand what you're trying to do Tatsuya. And you're wrong, you're so wrong it's not even funny. I will not stop you, but before I choose a path that I believe is right, I won't help you either." With that, a single push of the button from Klaud turned the screen black.

* * *

"Big Brother... What do you think Klaud will do?"

"What she believes in, and what she alone finds at the end of that path to peace."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Bonding, healing, rehabilitation, training, all of the above.


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note** : Again, my apologies for what happened two weeks ago, but I've been feeling unusually tired lately. In any case Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 28: Basic Magical Training: Effect Control

Klaud laid down in front of the mansion, anchoring her entire body to the ground and aiming at the target in front of her with her magic rifle. Firing the rifle, the target was obliterated, but more important than that, the entire section of the ground beneath Klaud was ripped out and sent her flying backwards. So on top of anchoring her body flat to the ground being highly impractical, it was also extremely ineffective to stop her from being sent flying every time she fired a shot. Defeated, Klaud slink back inside the mansion, where she saw Madison cooking rice for their supper.

"How'd it go?" Instead of answering Maylin's question, Klaud went over to a white board that had Success and Failure written in two separate columns, adding another tally to failure while continuing to leave success blank. "Oh that bad?"

"Perhaps if I fine tuned the C.A.D.s so that they would release your Psions in a controlled fashion." Rebecca stated as she got a couple scoops of chicken fried rice onto a plate.

"Why didn't you think of doing that sooner?" Klaud asked, suddenly feeling very sore from being rocked by that gun all day.

"It requires reprogramming your C.A.D. and if it doesn't work I have to program it back. Both are a lengthy time consuming process that requires that you spend hours on end half naked in my lab." Rebecca explained in a dry tone of voice.

"Fair enough. So what are we gonna do anyway?" Klaud asked getting her meal ready as well.

"Hmm. The problem here might be that we're jumping the gun, teaching you how to shoot at the same time we're trying to teach you psion control. Give me a few minuets, but after Supper." Saying that the four of them sat down and had a nice meal together.

"Has anyone seen mom? I haven't seen her around all day." Klaud stated, sounding a little bit sad.

"She said she was giving the four of us some time to get to know each other again." Maylin stated sounding a little bit annoyed.

"Has anyone heard from Dad lately?" Klaud asked scooping rice into her mouth. To this question, both Rebecca and Maylin sent Madison a knowing look.

"He's been pretty busy over seas. But you guys know how hard it is for him to come visit, with him living in Hong Kong and us living in Japan." Madison explained nervously poking around her food.

"So that's a no then. Don't get me wrong guys, I love screwing over the GAA as much as the next girl, but you'd think that he'd at least call us after we chased those No Head dragons out of the country." Rebecca stated pointing with her fork. "Not that we're anyone to complain, but that guy always has been a work-a-holic." Rebecca nodded, agreeing with Maylin.

* * *

After Supper was done the sisters gathered together in Rebecca's lab, where they saw something that suspiciously looked like the gun that Rebecca was using mounted directly to the wall and aimed directly at a carnival test your strength machine.

"You sure this is gonna work Rebecca?" Maylin asked looking at the Machine suspiciously.

"That wall is made out of a Titanium Carbon Nanotube mesh. All I can say is, it had better!" Saying that Rebecca worked on getting the machine ready, but in the mean time, Klaud noticed a black colored body suit being kept in a pod off to the side.

"Hey is that one of your new experiments Rebecca?" Klaud asked looking at the pod.

"Actually it's one of mine. It's the new battle costume that the two of us are gonna design together." Madison stated, a excited and happy look on her face.

"You're asking me to help you make one of my costumes?" Klaud asked looking suspicious.

"Doing something new for the first time is always fun." Madison stated smiling warmly at Klaud. For a good few moments, Klaud had to think about it. She took out her wallet and looked at the picture she was keeping inside, before handing it over to Madison. "Are you sure?" Madison asked looking confused before giving Klaud back her wallet.

"I've thought about this for a long time. About the people I'm going up against. About what they're capable of. About what I'm capable of. I need them to be afraid of me. But I know they're not. But her?" Klaud stated pointing to the picture, of when she was a child, when she was wearing the makeup and costume of a clown. "Her they are afraid of!"

By now Klaud knew about Gelos, about the little nickname given to her by the Japanese government. Named after the Greek god of laughter, or more accurately of madness, a figure who appears on the battle field to mock the soldiers for their futile efforts and the horrors they go through.

"Alright. I'll get right on it. But first you have some bells to ring!" Madison stated pointing to the bell for Klaud to ring.

Taking the gun, Rebecca disabled the C.A.D in her arm, and she open fire on the gun. The good news was that the wall the gun was attached to didn't break. The bad news was that the test your strength machine was utterly destroyed, the ringer and bell shot through the roof.

"That's what I get for buying second hand from a carnival." Rebecca muttered, before she restored the machine to perfect working order with the time card. "Ah well, we got time."

Saying that, Klaud spent the next few hours firing at the target, taking hours before they reached the point in time where Klaud could fire at the thing without completely destroying it.

"Yes! I did it!" A exhausted Klaud stated before she fell backwards into a chair.

"More likely you've manage to drain every last one of your psions from your body." Rebecca stated as she came over and turned on Klaud's C.A.D again. "We'll resume this tomorrow, after you've had a chance to rest."

With that, Klaud went into her room. Even though she was tired she still had her school work to do. As it was though Klaud soon met by another video chat request, this time from Mayumi.

"Hey Mayumi! Checking in on me or pestering me about the thesis competition?" Klaud asked, waving to the student Council president.

"How do you know about the thesis competition?" Mayumi asked before she gave her head a short shake. "I was actually wondering if you'd take up the job of the head of the Public Morals Committee when you get back."

"Mari's job?" Klaud asked prompting Mayumi to nod. "Huh. She is graduating soon isn't she?"

"Yes she is!" Mayumi stated nodding her head.

"No offense to my upper class men or anything Mayumi, but shouldn't the next head be a third year as well? I mean if they suddenly have to start taking orders from their Junior..." Klaud stated, sounding a little bit down.

"You mean the same Junior that they unanimously agreed should be in charge next year?" Mayumi stated looking mighty smug with herself.

"Say what?" Klaud asked open mouthed gaping.

"Well they actually wanted Tatsuya, but he already made plans to transfer over to the student Council. So they went with their second choice, namely you." Mayumi explained prompting Klaud to nod in understanding.

"Well that's understandable, that guy is pretty reliable, but really I'm the next one after him?" Klaud asked looking perturbed at Mayumi.

"What are you talking about you monster that became the terror of the Nine School's competition?" Mayumi stated laughing a little bit. "But what are they bothering you about the Thesis Competition?"

"Tatsuya's building a nuke." Klaud stated in a dry and serious tone of voice.

"A nuke?" Mayumi asked a serious and scared look on her face.

"A Magic nuke but still you get the point! If it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck and leaves behind giant radioactive craters like a duck then it don't matter if it's a magic duck!"

"Aren't you overreacting a little bit? Didn't Rebecca build a one of these things before?" Mayumi asked looking concerned.

"What makes you think she built a magic nuclear reactor before?" Klaud asked with a look of suspicion on her face, to which Mayumi gave her a look like it was obvious. "Alright I get it Rebecca's a bloody mad scientist! Yah know insulting my family isn't the best way to ask for my help!" Klaud stated sounding rather annoyed.

"Sorry. But you like your sisters now? I thought you were terrified of them?" Mayumi asked clearly confused.

"Well I never hated them." Klaud stated sounding like she was making excuses. "But we are trying to heal and they're not so bad when they're not trying to pound courage into me. And the training right now isn't so bad."

"Stockholm syndrome is a terrible thing. I'll trust you on this Klaud, but I don't have to like the idea of you spending too much time with those three." Mayumi explained shaking her head. At that time Klaud got a email from Rebecca asking her to come to her lab, the start of many a great horror story.

"Well, I can't say that you're wrong for worrying." Klaud stated as she closed her computer down and went to the lab.

* * *

"So you're gonna tune my C.A.D.s while I'm asleep?" Klaud asked as she was already half undressed and sitting on top of Rebecca's tuning table.

"It is a bit of a time consuming process." Rebecca replied getting her machines ready. "Okay but why, I've seen you tune C.A.D.s before and it takes you like five or ten minuets each. How many of these things did you put into me?" Klaud asked sounding more than a little bit concerned.

"We better get to work." Rebecca replied dismissively.

"Oh that many..." Klaud replied with a look of fear on her features.

* * *

When Klaud did go to sleep she had weird dreams of flying tuna fish and leprechauns on surfboards, but when she awoke she saw a computer screen that stated that the tuning process for her C.A.D.s had been completed and Rebecca asleep at her work station. Still Klaud was half dressed, and she hadn't even had breakfast yet, so she decided that further training could wait until after a full breakfast. When Klaud got up the stairs and into the living room the sound and bacon frying and eggs cooking entered her ears, the one responsible was Maylin who was dressed in a tracksuit.

"Maylin? I didn't know that you got up this early." Klaud stated as she scratched her head.

"I was in the military, we rise with the sun. More importantly why were you in Rebecca's lab, don't tell me she experimented on you while you were sleeping again?" Maylin asked cocking a concerned brow at Klaud.

"In a manner of speaking, we tuned my C.A.D.s last night." Klaud explained while she inhaled deeply through her nose. "That smells good!"

"Yah I was just getting some breakfast before I go on my morning run." Maylin stated, poring a glass of red wine for herself.

If Klaud's memory about Maylin's health plans served her, she usually had two whole eggs for breakfast, with red wine to counteract the high cholesterol diet, wheat toast with strawberry jam.

"You mind if I join you?" Klaud asked awkwardly scratching the side of her face. "I thought you hated exercising with me?" Maylin asked cocking a brow at Klaud.

"I was afraid of you Maylin, but I never hated you. You helped raise me, taught me how to be brave, how to stand tall and be proud of myself and our family. And now that I know the truth, I know that I never would have been wanted to be raised differently, because I am proud of who I am, and I'm proud of my big sister who taught me how to be brave!" Maylin suddenly reached over and hugged Klaud into herself.

"Don't think this means I'm going to go easy on you just because we're getting along now."

"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you just to keep you from getting embarrassed by being shown up by your baby sister!"

* * *

Hornofdesolation: True.


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note** : Not much to say this week, other than I plan on focusing on more exciting action filled bits next week. In the mean time, Read, Review, Favorite and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 29: Magical Rehabilitation: In case of Relapsing

Klaud successfully shot her twelfth clay pigeon out of the air using her magical rifle, clearly fine tuning the C.A.D Implants were a good call. Now that Klaud wasn't being sent flying every time she fired off her weapon she could focus on getting a handle on getting back to normal.

"The four of you seem to be getting along nicely." The four women looked over to see a fifth, their mother Sakura fresh out of bed based on the fact that she was still in her evening wear. "Oh I'm so happy to see my girls getting along again after so long!" Saying that, Sakura abruptly pulled her four daughters into a hug. "So how are you doing Klaud?"

"Well, I'm not getting sent flying every time fire this gun off anymore, and I've managed to spend a whole day with my sisters without feeling the overwhelming need to run off and hide in the cupboard." Klaud replied, deliberately trying to avoid the topic at hand.

"Oh that bad eh? Well it's nice to see the four of you getting along." Sakura reiterated patting Klaud on her head. "But what's this about her being sent flying by that gun she's holding?"

To this question, Maylin and Madison looked at Rebecca whom they knew as the guilty party.

"Normally, part of a magician's development is that they grow into their power as they mature. But Klaud, she got it all at once, and at a very young age, and that screwed with her psion control. So we tried bottle necking that, and now we're trying to take the bottle neck out of the equation. Thus far she's already grasped basic psion control, but I suspect we'll have to work on the rest." Rebecca stated as she scratched her chin debating on what to do next.

"Then for the time being, Klaud isn't the only one who needs to heal." Saying that Sakura presented a rather ominous object, the Book of Klaud as the title at the bottom read. "You know what this is Klaud don't you?"

"It's a book, my book. The resting place of all of my cards when I'm not using them." Klaud stated in a sad tone resting her hand on the surface. "The book I stole from my own father when I murdered him."

A loud clap echoed through the area, Klaud's cheek was now red and sore from where Sakura had hit her. Looking up Klaud saw her mother with a deep set fury in her eyes that sent a chill down her spine.

"Understand something Klaud, loud and clear, you are not the one who killed your fathers. And you stole absolutely nothing from them! Am. I. Under. Stood?" Sakura asked in a deep and unforgiving tone of voice that carried not one single ounce of mercy in it.

To this end, Klaud could only nod her head.

"Good now have the four of you had breakfast yet?" A motherly tone that sharply contradicted the one used to scold Klaud a moment earlier asked.

"Uh-Uh..." Klaud tried to reply, but clearly she was still stunned.

"I can't speak for these two but me and Klaud had some eggs earlier, I had red wine and she had cranberry juice." Maylin stated indicating both herself and Klaud.

"Well that's fine, as much as I would wish for Klaud to have little bit of alone time with the cards I think having a little bit of supervision is in order as well." Saying that, Sakura led both Madison and Rebecca inside the mansion.

"Klaud, are you gonna be okay?" Klaud collapsed onto her knees and started hyperventilating. "Breath." Maylin stated handing Klaud a bag which she promptly began rapidly blowing up and sucking flat giving Maylin the chance she needed to sit her up right. "Now repeat after me three, nine, four, eight, five, two, one, six, seven."

"Wha?" A confused and still slightly panicking Klaud asked.

"Just do it Klaud." Maylin stated trying to sound gentle.

"Three, nine, four, eight, five..." Klaud visibly started to calm down none being more surprised than she was. "Two, One, Six, Seven. How'd you do that?"

"You can't freak out and count numbers in the wrong order at the same time Klaud. Little trick my C.O taught me the first time I went into battle. Are you okay?" The elder sister asked sitting down next to Klaud.

"I-I've never seen her like that before..." Klaud stated, folding up into a ball.

"I have, when I told her I joined the military, after dad moved back to Hong Kong, when Rebecca joined the magical institute, when those Russian jerks invaded the town oh that was a bad one..." While Maylin listed off all time that she remembered her getting angry Klaud was busy fending off another mini-panic attack.

"Three, nine, four, eight, five, two, one, six, seven." The younger sister muttered.

"Are you good now?" Maylin asked realizing just Klaud was in the middle of, to which the younger girl nodded her head. "Okay. Well we probably should get to doing the thing that she wanted us to do now." Maylin stated, picking up the book that Sakura had left behind.

The two went over to a bench together, and Klaud was looking down at her book with a ominous feeling of dread upon her.

"Are you gonna be okay Klaud?" Maylin asked for what felt like the umpteenth time that morning.

"Sorry it's just... I'm not sure if I can face them after everything that happened." Klaud stated a sad look on her face as she looked down at the book that bore her name.

"Imagine how they feel for moment would yah? Unlike you they weren't traumatized so badly that they forgot what happened all that time ago. Which means that in spite of knowing that, they still choose to serve you and done so loyally. The only problem here, are the ones that you're creating for yourself." Maylin stated leaning her cheek on her fist.

Letting out a defeated tired sigh, Klaud proceeded to open up her book, and immediately one of it's cards flew out and took form in front of her.

"So you're aware of what happened now are you?" Klaud froze up when she heard the voice.

This was understandable, on account of the fact that the owner of that voice was one that Klaud never thought she would ever meet in person. Turning around, the two girls were met by one of Klaud's father and Maylin's brother Tori. Immediately Klaud started to panic again only this time much more severely dropping on all fours and crawling away backwards fearfully.

"Real nice, traumatizing her like that." Maylin stated noting that Klaud had already ran off. "So I take it now that you know that she knows about what you know?"

"You mean that she's aware of the fact that she killed her fathers? Yes, Return told us." The Mirror duplicate explained turning to face Maylin. "This might not have been the face that she wanted to see, but it is a face that she needed to see. Or one of them that is."

"Try telling her that after we dig her out of the closet." Maylin stated using a magic sword to seal the Mirror card away before locking it inside of Klaud's book.

* * *

As Sakura, Rebecca and Madison finished eating breakfast they suddenly heard some rampage through the house and run into the closet before locking it. Immediately the three older women looked at each other before going to investigate the closet.

"Klaud are you in there?" Sakura asked pressing her ear to the door.

If Sakura's memory served her the closet was Klaud's hiding place of choice whenever she was thrown into a panic attack, towards this end Sakura had a lock placed inside of it to help her feel safe, and gave her daughters strict instructions that this closet was strictly off limits. So if Klaud had reverted this much, then it must have been something bad. From the other side of the door Sakura could hear Klaud crying and hyperventilating confirming her fears.

"Sweetie are you okay!?" Sakura asked again, sounding a little bit fearful.

"What the bleeding hell did Maylin do to her!?" Rebecca snapped, sounding particularly displeased.

"Go find out Rebecca. Now!" At Sakura's marching orders Rebecca exited the mansion to go looking for Maylin. Left with few choices Sakura began singing a lullaby, hoping to calm Klaud down. Eventually she heard the latch come undone. "Madison, I believe that Klaud's friends and or teachers should be calling soon. Would you please tell them that she's not available right now?" Sakura asked looking at Madison, whom nodded in response.

With that done Sakura opened the closet. Since Klaud took the closet as her sanctuary Sakura had numerous cushions moved inside. Although it seemed that they had grown rather dusty, she'd have to have them cleaned if this was to become a common occurrence.

"Klaud listen to the sound of my voice." Sakura produced her sleep card. "When I use this card on you, you will be put into a deep dreamless sleep, and when you awaken you will feel refreshed and calm. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Klaud quickly nodded her head, prompting Sakura to release the small fairy like spirit, whom sprinkled something like dust over Klaud causing her to fall asleep. Sakura pulled her daughter into a hug and held her like that for a few minuets. Then she stood up and started going for the stairs.

"Madison. If anyone needs us, we're not available." Saying that, Sakura carried Klaud up the stairs and into her room, where the two of them laid down on Klaud's bed.

* * *

"So you mean to tell me that Mirror copied Tori's appearance?" Rebecca asked looking at Maylin suspiciously.

"It claimed that it was the face that Klaud needed to see." Maylin stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Well she's not wrong." Rebecca stated picking up Klaud's mirror card. "But there is such a thing as READING THE BLEEDING ATMOSPHERE YOU MISERABLE GLORIFIED MIRROR!" Before promptly shouting at it.

"You're one to talk about reading the atmosphere drunkard." Maylin scolded.

"And what would a meat witted thug like you know about reading the atmosphere?" Rebecca countered her hands on her hips.

"This is the reason why we never hang out when Klaud is around." Maylin replied her hand on her face. "The three of us always break down into pity insults."

"Well you started it! Come on, mom probably needs help dragging Klaud out of the closet again." Rebecca stated shoving Klaud's book into Maylin's arms before walking off in a harrumph.

When the two of them entered the mansion the smell of something good and the sound of food cooking greeted them. The two went into the kitchen and saw Madison at the stove cooking hot dogs. They also saw that the closet was empty.

"Where's Klaud and Mom?" Maylin asked not seeing either party around.

"Not available." Madison stated getting suspicious looks from her sister. "Mom's words not mine. If yah want something to do she said she wanted those washed." Madison stated pointing to the closet that had dusty pillows inside.

"Lovely." Rebecca stated as she threw the bubble card at the pile of pillows immediately causing the closet to be turned into a suds volcano. "So are we suppose to just sit here until she calms down?" Rebecca asked looking at Madison suspiciously.

"In a word yes. Unless you two would rather help me cook lunch?" Madison stated gesturing to the hot dogs she was grilling.

* * *

Upstairs in her room, Klaud was slowly rousing herself awake and looked to see that her mother was laying next to her.

"So Klaud, are you ready to talk about what happened?" Sakura asked a look of deep affection on her features.

"I saw dad today." Klaud explained sounding bitter before falling backwards. "I don't mean dad-dad, I mean..."

"One of the ones that got incinerated?" Sakura asked prompting Klaud to nod her head.

"I mean I know it wasn't dad, I just opened the book and he just popped out and... look I know it's stupid, being traumatized like this just because of something I can't remember."

"You've got that backwards Klaud." Sakura stated in a voice that was both strict and kind as she hugged Klaud into herself. "You're not traumatized because you can't remember, you can't remember because you're traumatized." The two grabbed hold of each other as they cried into one another over their mutual loss. "Did... Did I push you too hard?" Sakura asked letting Klaud pull away from her.

"Mom, I can think of a lot of things that you've done over the years. But pushing me was never one of them. I was the one who tried to contact the cards again even though I knew I wasn't ready yet." Klaud stated her hand on her chest. "I'll... I'll just have to lock them up again. I know it's not fair to them, but I'm... I'm not ready to face them yet." The young magician stated sounding extremely sad.

* * *

In the mean time, Rebecca had turned the living room into a miniature work shop. In one hand was a cell phone that she had just completed stenciling a magic circle onto the back of, and she had already used her shrink card to reduce Klaud's book to the size of a quarter.

"Alright I'll bite, Rebecca what are you doing to Klaud's stuff?" Maylin asked as she set the dining table for five.

"The same thing I did to mine." Rebecca stated pulling out own phone, which currently looked skinned in her own magical book. "Normally, Klaud carries her cards with her in a pouch in case she needs them because the book is too buiky. But by the time I'm through with it, that will not be the case."

"Rebecca, can you A check with Klaud to make sure that learning magic is still even on the table before you go and screw with her stuff, and B get her permission before you do said screwing?" Maylin asked un-amused. To this, Rebecca breathed a heavy sigh and put the cell phone down before she removed the shrink spell from the book.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.


	30. Chapter 30

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say this week I'm afraid. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 30: Magical Physical Rehabilitation: The First Step

Inside of First High's science lab, someone from the Public Morals committee was working on the computer. Now this was suspicious for three reasons. The first was that he was not suppose to be here, secondly he was not suppose to be here in the middle of the night, and thirdly he was most certainly not suppose to use some kind of device to bypass the passwords and entry codes of the people who did actually work here. Thus the robotic maid who was observing this going on found it sufficient reason to render him unconscious.

"Izao broke into the science lab last night?" Klaud asked a sincere look of disbelief on her features. "Why would he do that?"

"It might interest you to know that Izao is also leading a team for the thesis competition." Mari explained from the other end of Klaud's video chat.

"Was he the one that came up with the magic nuke?" Klaud asked a little bit of anger in her features at the mention of the thesis competition.

"No he's on a different team. The one Tatsuya is on is working are trying to refine the concept of a magical thermonuclear reactor. The one that Izao was on are trying to come up with a new magical theory." Mari explained her chin resting on the side of her face. "Trying be the key word."

"So this was just a pity act of sabotage then?" Klaud asked leaning back into her couch.

"If it was, it was pretty sophisticated. The code breaker he was using was pretty advanced. Not the kind of tech that you'd find on the open market. Then there was the way that he was acting during the break in." Mari stated looking off into space with a suspicious look on her features.

"How was he acting?" Klaud asked legitimate concern on her face, after all Izao was her respected colleague, if there was something wrong with him she had the right to be concerned.

"It's the way he wasn't acting. Izao knows about Pixie..." Klaud only looked confused before Mari continued to explain. "She's an android one of the teams built last year. They keep her around to serve as a maid and get them drinks, but they also leave her on during the night to serve as a guard." Mari explained before continuing. "The point here, is that Izao knows about her. So logically he should have tried to disable her before she got suspicious instead of ignoring her."

"So you think he got caught on purpose?" Klaud asked prompting Mari to nod. "Well that's unusual. So he must have been coerced... or brainwashed." Some people posses enough will power to resist even magical brainwashing, if Izao was actively trying to shake it off then that means that someone tried to make him do something to the thesis competition and he was trying to stop himself. "First Blanche, then the NSC and now this mess with Izao. Someone's new favorite hobby as of late seems to be to screw with our classmates!"

"The Most that we can do is tighten security around campus and Izao." Mari stated a frustrated look on her face.

"The most you can do, but I got a few things I can try out for myself." Klaud stated as she turned off her lap top.

Walking to the other side of the mansion, Klaud arrived in Madison's design studio. There she saw her putting together another of her outfits, this one a yellow and red clown costume with a large frilled collar around the neck.

"Aw Klaud! I was just working on your new battle costume!" Madison stated as she gestured to the half finished costume.

"I need to speak to dad Madison." Klaud stated not sounding like she was planning on compromising on this.

"Klaud what are you..." Madison was going to say more, but she could tell from the way she was looking at her that it wouldn't accomplish anything. "Give me a minuet." Madison punched several keys on a nearby tablet which after a few minuets prompted a holographic screen to appear from her work station.

"Good morning Madison." The Brown haired man of Asian descent stated looking up from a clipboard. "And Klaud this is a surprise. How are my daughters today?"

"Well, I heard that one of my classmates at school got into trouble, and it made me miss having you around a little bit." Klaud stated awkwardly scratching the back of her neck.

"At school? You're not going anymore?" Klaud's father asked cocking a curious brow.

"Ugh, well, something happened at the Nine School Competition and I'm kinda... a little bit... suspended." Klaud stated awkwardly scratching the back of her neck.

"Did my idiotic subordinates do something to you Klaud?" The Brown haired hologram asked furrowing his brow.

"No! No! No! It's not that... Uh how do I put this?" While Klaud was busy trying to make sense of a confusing situation Madison had sneaked behind her and was gesturing to a family photo that up until recently she kept hidden.

"I see. I'll have to have a word with your mother later." Klaud's father stated as he features tightened into a scowl, hiding the bulk of his face behind his hands.

"Right, well I'll come out and say then." Klaud stated turning the subject around to a slightly more unpleasant topic. "Have you been doing anything in Japan again?"

Klaud's father visibly sucked in air, he reached off screen and grabbed a coffee mug before taking a long deep drink.

"If something is going on at your school, the No Head Dragons aren't responsible, but I have heard chatter that the Great Asian Alliance are planning to invade Japan."

"And you didn't think of telling anyone about this?" Klaud asked annoyance mixed with concern.

"The Great Asian Alliance are always planning to invade somewhere, it's more of a question of where and when, which by the way based on how much we've been harassing any of the ships and flights leading from Hong Kong and Japan I can't even imagine that they've got enough resources heading in that direction to stage an invasion." Klaud's father stated putting the coffee cup down.

"The invasion's already here. Someone who knows their way around mind control and enough about hacking tech that they can plug it in a make it work. To me that sounds like a well funded sophisticated operation, which makes me think of a foreign government." Klaud stated pacing back and forth.

"As a large criminal organization the No Head Dragons has a business, a business that I've been able to for the most part turn against the Great Asian Alliance. But we are not capable of dismantling their government yet, which means that before we openly declare war on them things of note are going to slip through the cracks. I don't believe you are being invaded, I believe you are being scouted. It's almost the end of the first semester at your school, which means the thesis competition where the latest in ground breaking technology as concocted by your's and the other eight school's are going to be on display. You might as well post a target on the convention center saying 'come and take our stuff.'" Klaud's father stated punctuating his sentence with air quotes.

"Yah speaking of which. I may have screwed up a little. See. One of my classmate's at school, Tatsuya is his name. He got the chance to well, examine my cards, and now he's kinda sorta used the information he took from them to build a uh... How do I put this gently?"

"Klaud, you can't put a magical thermonuclear reactor gently." Madison stated with the least amount of tact one could possible manage, prompting a look of true horror from the face of Klaud's father.

"What the hell are they teaching you people at that school!?" The horrified patriarch of the family asked.

"Well Rebecca's gonna start teaching there in the fall, so hopefully she'll get them all sorted out nicely." Madison stated somewhat dismissively by waving her hand.

"Madison. There's such a thing as a limit to a bad Joke." The girl's father stated with a serious look on his face.

"Yes. Yes there is. But no. No this isn't." Klaud stated equally as serious as her father.

"Was she at least sober when she made this arrangement?" Klaud's father asked rubbing his temples and fending off a incoming headache.

"Has been ever since the Nine School's Competition." Madison stated shrugging her shoulders. "Gonna be living with Klaud in the city once school starts again. Might be enough to keep her sober. That and you know, she's actually trying this time."

"Lovely. Well I need to go talk to your mother now Klaud. Have a nice day with your sisters." Saying that the Kinomoto family patriarch closed the video.

"Well that went better then expected." Madison stated, trying, and failing, to sound cheerful.

* * *

"You're going to go back?" That afternoon, Klaud had already called a family meeting with her mother and her sisters, with some shocking news to share.

"We might not have a choice." Klaud stated pacing around the living room.

"If what Rebecca told us about her reactor is true, then Tatsuya building another one is a extremely bad idea. A bunch of people figuring out how to build more of them is a idea of apocalyptic scale. The Great Asian Alliance figuring out how to make one is of biblical scale. So unless you guys wanna sit right here while the next apocalypse goes down we need to get moving right now!" Klaud stated pointing downward.

"Sounds like my daughter is starting to take control over her life again. But I wonder." Sakura placed Klaud's book on the table and pushed it towards her. "Are you ready for that burden? If you aren't even ready to face your own past, then how can you face the future?"

"I'm scared." Klaud stated, sitting down on the couch again while placing her hand on the book. "I've been scared for as long as I remember. But now I know what I'm scared of. Don't make it any less scary. But as it is, they say the first step in over coming your fears is to face them head on. Besides, Tatsuya's his spitting image. If can't even talk to his illusion, then what am I suppose to do when I talk to Tatsuya." Opening the book a familiar looking man emerged from the book.

"Going to scream and run away again Klaud?" Mirror in the form of Tori asked looking down at Klaud. Unlike last time a couple of weeks ago, Klaud didn't make a beeline for the closet. Though one couldn't call scrunch her eyes close and curling up on the couch a improvement. "Klaud. Do you realize the reason why we have served you so loyally these past years?" Mirror asked sighing in annoyance when Klaud didn't answer. "Because that is the wish of our previous master, your father." Klaud suddenly opened her eyes and looked up at Mirror, whom in turn sat down next to her. "All this time you've been mourning the fact that you had killed your fathers. But have you considered what would have happened had you not unleashed a hail of flaming projectiles upon the heads of the Russian soldiers? If they could take down both of your parents, then your sisters would have followed soon after. And you don't want to know what they are capable of doing to them, or to you. One of the only reasons why they didn't target you was because you were a child. Leverage to be used against your family for whatever they wanted them for. Do you know how horrifying it is for a parent to live every day of their life in fear for their child? The thought that they might out live you? Allow me to be blunt with you: they would rather be dead. If Tori and Harry were sitting here right now but you wouldn't, and they were asked if they could trade their lives for yours, then that is precisely the deal they would make. They would gladly kill themselves in a heart beat if it means saving you. Because they love you that much!" Klaud grabbed hold of Mirror and started crying into him, letting out long held feelings of sorrow.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Well, that was the idea after all.


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note** : Hello my people, playing a lot of Final Fantasy this week, but don't worry, still got plenty of time to write.

* * *

Chapter 31: Theoretical Magic Development: Magical Battery

From the view point of the balcony that was over looking the city Mayumi was taking the liberty of thinking over some important things. First thing on her mind was Klaud. The last time she saw her and a video screen wasn't between them was at the Nine Schools Competition, after she tried to kill her own sisters. There When they asked if Klaud was going to be okay they, and I quote, responded with no. It was not something that would leave a very good impression. Then on top of everything else she was getting into this magical reactor flame war with Tatsuya over the internet. Then a few hours ago, no video chat, no prior warning, she just got a email dropped in her inbox saying, 'I'm coming back and I'm bringing Rebecca with me.' Mayumi had to hold back her desire to go see Klaud. For one thing it would be pointless. Travel well Klaud not, which meant that not only was she already asleep, but she would stay asleep till the morning. Which meant that the only person there she could talk to was Rebecca. Mayumi was not the biggest fan of Klaud's sisters. Even when you understand the reasons for their horrible treatment of her, it still didn't make it right. Besides Rebecca didn't want to talk to her either. Rather she wasn't the person that she did want to talk to.

* * *

"So then, you're the 'rat bastard' eh?" Rebecca asked in a unamused tone of voice.

The one that she was addressing of course, was none other than the current student council vice president and brains behind the magical nuclear reactor project Suzune Ichihara. Once Rebecca had arrived at Klaud's apartment she was greeted by this person who introduced herself as the head of the Magical Thermonuclear reactor project. Oh they had a great deal to talk about.

"'Rat Bastard?'" Suzune gulped nervously in response to this statement. "Ms. Kinomoto, I don't know what..."

"I don't intend to scold you for what you're trying to build. But we will discuss later on the many reasons why it is a bad idea later. For now there is another related matter to deal with." Rebecca stated leaning back into the chair a very displeased expression on her face. "Your henchman stole from my family." Suzune gulped loudly.

"I-I..."

"Silence! When you are aloud to speak you will be asked to!" That made Suzune clam up with enthusiasm. "Your little science project uses the magical formula taken from my sister's cards. So before I decide what level of punishment is appropriate for you, I will take a look at it myself!"

* * *

A look at it she did, by noon the next day half the parts of the magical reactor that the thesis team had spent month's building were lying next to the wall in a disorganized mess, a painful look on Suzune's face as Rebecca who was underneath it grumbled something unintelligibly and tossed another piece onto the pile like it were a piece of garbage.

"Would you be a little more careful, that's one of the main stabilizers." Suzune stated as she cradled the device with a pained look on her face.

"And here I thought it was a fuse for the bomb that you're making." Rebecca replied not crawling out of the hole in the machine that she had made.

"A bomb? As in a explosion? But, that's impossible! Tatsuya-kun was the one who designed it!" Suzune asked with a stunned and horrified look on her face.

"That doesn't surprise me. I'm horrible with magical engineering and all." Hearing something that didn't make any sense Suzune turned around to look at Tatsuya in shock. "Oh sure I'm good with the programming aspect. In fact you could say that I'm the best. But hardware is not my department."

"But you drew up these plans." Suzune stated in disbelief holding up the clipboard with the blueprints in question. "I found them on your desk! You left a note for me saying to use them!"

"I have a desk?" Tatsuya asked confusedly, causing Suzune to gap in shock.

"It would seem that you have a gremlin in your midst." Rebecca stated, crawling out of the hole in the machine she dug and using a clothe to wipe grease off of her hands.

"Hey Suzune..." The voice of a young man who was obscured by a large computer tower that he was carrying in front of him walked into the lab. "Where'd you say that you wanted this thing again?"

"Anywhere's good, it turns out we're not gonna need it for a while." Suzune stated trying to fend off a incoming headache.

Leo dropped the expensive looking machine with a loud crash, although it still looked intact afterwards. Immediately he caught sight of Rebecca who looked familiar.

"You I've seen before." Then he snapped his fingers showing that he managed to put it together. "You're Klaud's sister ain't yah. Rebecca right? How she's doing anyhow?"

"She's moved back to town to help me settle in, though for the time being she's still on Home Schooling." Rebecca stated as she began scribbling down something on a piece of paper.

"Oh better look out Tatsuya yah 'Rat Bastard' otherwise Klaud's gonna get yah!" Laughing at his own Joke Leo started down the hall.

* * *

A couple of blocks away from the school was the city's China town district. Even though it was called that, it was little more than a nice concentration camp. During the last world war the Japanese government had rounded up everyone of Chinese descent as they could and those who weren't shipped off to China as part of some type of negotiation were locked into little blocks just like this one, and here they remained, alongside their descendants. That suited the purposes of the Great Asian Alliance just fine, because now they had a dozen bases across Japan stocked full of loyal Great Asian Alliance supporters. Like this gentleman for example. A tall and thin pencil of a man, especially when compared to the two bulky men he was sitting across, wearing a dark suit with lavender colored hair and bright yellow eyes. He was known as Zhou Gongjin, a businessman and the current owner of the the China Town District. Under his leadership it was transformed from a rundown slum of a concentration camp into the cutout of luxurious Chinese culture that it is today. Though the members of the Great Asian Alliance knew him as Zhou Gongjin the spy of the nation of Dahan who they inherited when they took over the country. The two men across from him had brown hair with a beard and dark eyes and the other had dark hair with a soul patch and yellow eyes as well. They were Chen Xiangsan and Lu Gonghu respectively, two 'enhanced agents' of the Great Asian Alliance's super soldier program.

"So gentlemen, what can I do to serve my country today?" Zhou asked though it had just a little bit of sarcasm in his voice.

"The spy you got for us has been captured. We need a new one." Chen stated as if he was returning a defective product he had just bought. "We also can't afford to have this coming back on us."

"My you people demand a lot." Zhou stated as if someone had just made a joke. "Well the brain washing I did on that kid was quite thorough, he isn't going to be able to tell anyone about our operation. In the mean time though I've come into contact with a little brat from the school's middle school division."

"A Eighth grader? Are you serious!" Chen asked a sound of disbelief in his voice.

"It's the perfect cover. This country has a epidemic of delusional children who think they're characters in a TV program and this brat is no exception. So naturally, when people see her playing super spy, they don't think much of it. Additionally she seems to have a bit of a grudge against the engineer for the thesis team Tatsuya Shiba." Zhou stated as he prepared a pot of tea.

"Shiba I know that name from somewhere." Chen stated as Lu passed him a folder. "Right he was a big shot during the last Nine School's competition. Very talented Magical programmer."

"If you want it shouldn't be too hard to convince my little spy to play assassin." Zhou stated as he spun the spoon around the tea cup.

"No no if he's on the thesis team then the likely hood of them making something useful has gone up." Chen stated dismissively.

"Hello!" The voice of a young woman echoed throughout the store.

"If you'll excuse me gentlemen, it would seem that my night job is going to have to wait until night." Saying that Zhou got to his feet and went out front.

At the same time the two men having concluded their business here went out through the back.

"Keep an eye on him. A limitless stream of spies means a limitless stream of loose ends." Chen stated sounding rather unamused.

Out front Zhou had met with a young woman who was looking around his store.

"Um I'm suppose to picked something up for Syaoran Lee?" Klaud asked looking around the store.

"Ahh." Zhao made a face like aha and handed Klaud a folder, inside were pictures of Chen and Lu and various other people who looked to be of Chinese descent. "This is what you're looking for then."

"You're spying on Japan for the Great Asian Alliance, and you're spying on the Great Asian Alliance for my family. So who are you spying on my family for?" Klaud asked while she reviewed the individuals in the folder.

"Dahan."

"That no longer exists, it was absorbed into the Great Asian Alliance." Klaud stated looking at Zhao suspiciously.

"Then I owe my loyalty to something that no longer exists." Zhao stated smirking knowingly.

"Which means you're only loyal to yourself. So what do you want?" Klaud asked looking at Zhao suspiciously.

"Revenge." Zhao stated smirking sinisterly. Klaud stuffed the folder into her backpack and left the store. She made it all the way out of China town before being unexpectedly ambushed.

"Klaud!" Turning around Klaud was jumped by Miyuki who was looking quite angry with her. "Where the hell have you been?" Miyuki snapped poking her finger accusingly into Klaud's chest. "We don't see you for a month, you don't talk to anyone in weeks. The last time I saw you, you were being dragged off by your mother after you got into a big fight with your sisters! And the last time anyone heard from you you got into a big argument with my brother over the thesis competition! And now I find you skulking about the dodgy part of town in the middle of a crisis!"

"I-I really got nothing I can say right here can I?" Klaud asked nervously holding her hands out defensively.

"After school our place! You and Rebecca are going to set down with us and have a nice dinner is that understood!?" Miyuki snapped cutting off Klaud before she could say more, to which she nervously nodded her head.

* * *

The two Kinomoto family members arrived outside of Penthouse that was the Shiba Siblings house. Truthfully after the long trip there it would be nice to sit down and have a nice meal with friends. Even though they thought that, they could see that someone else was already over there with them.

"I didn't know that this little dinner party was open ended Klaud." Rebecca stated eyeing woman that was sitting in the living room suspiciously.

"Well it should be okay. We were invited over... sorta." Klaud stated rubbing the back of her neck.

"Sorta?" Rebecca stated sounding displeased.

"It was more like a... demand that we come over for supper." Clearly annoyed now, Rebecca rung the door bell and Miyuki took note, coming over to the door and opening it for the two 'guests.'

"Klaud!" In sharp contrast to the way that she was treating her earlier Miyuki leaped forward and wrapped her arms around Klaud in a hug. "Oh it's so good to see you again! Big Brother our guests are here!" Miyuki shouted into the house.

Immediately Tatsuya appeared to glare the woman into submission and she promptly left the house taking a metal suitcase with her.

"What was that about?" Klaud asked looking at the displeased woman suspiciously.

"Business negotiations. That woman over there works for the same company I do, Four Leaves technology. Her name is Sayuri." Tatsuya explained gesturing to the woman who just ran out the door.

"Oh I thought show looked familiar. She's your father's mistress right?" Rebecca asked prompting Tatsuya to nod.

"In any case she wants me to give a crack at trying to reverse engineer a Opart." Tatsuya explained waving his hand dismissively.

"An Opart? What's that?" Klaud asked looking rather confused.

"An Opart is a term used to refer to a piece of technology that even though it was made quite some time ago it has deeper functions that we cannot explain and thus reproduce." Tatsuya explained as he walked over to the table and picked up a large red Magatama. "In this case. This artifact possesses the ability to store a huge amount of Psions."

"So it's a magic battery. Which is ironic considering you were already working on a magic generator." Klaud stated resting her chin on her hand.

"Correct, basically these represent two of the biggest pieces in freeing up Magicians from slavery." Tatsuya explained putting the artifact into a vault.

"That or our cards. Well we can discuss that later. I was promised food after all." Rebecca stated waving her hand dismissively.

"Before we get started on that. I have a favor I'd like to ask." Tatsuya stated folding his hands over his lap.

* * *

On the subject of which Sayuri was angrily driving away from the Shiba residence. All that she could think about right now was how much she hated those two. First that little brat Tatsuya saved the life of that damned Miyu woman and kept her from being able to marry the man that she loved, then his little circle of lacky's are now taking over Four Leaves, and now most recently he's just taken the cash cow Opart that should in the hands of her department, and she let him! While road raging in this manner she was suddenly hit from the side by a truck and spun out of control for a short distance off the road. The two men driving said truck got out and forcibly dragged her from the vehicle, one used the butt of his gun to smash open her suitcase, exposing only the empty Magatama shaped hole inside. Not that they had the time to comprehend this situation as they were quickly knocked out by a red colored entity moving at high speeds. Before Sayuri could even comprehend what was going on here her phone had already dialed 911.

"I just know that Tatsuya has something to do with this!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Well the thing that you have to understand is that Japan is next door neighbors with the great Asian alliance, couple that with the fact that we already know they've done a lot of horrible things in pursuit of improving their military power and it's no surprise to learn that the Japanese government has lots of propaganda to spew out to their people to encourage them to enlist. Thank you for Saying so.

Duked: Thank you for saying so.


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note** : My dad's back in town, so that means I'm not going to be spending as much time writing as I normally do. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 32: Theoretical Magic: Alternate Psion Fuel Sources

After enjoying a nice meal of curry, the members of the Shiba and Kinomoto family's had gone about their respective activities. Miyuki had insisted on bringing Klaud shopping as a sort of welcome back gift, which left Tatsuya and Rebecca to discuss business.

"A 'origin?'" Tatsuya asked looking at Rebecca incredulously.

"Correct." Rebecca pulled out her illusion card and used that to create a large black board with a detailed sketch of what she was talking about, a part of the human brain, appropriately enough highlighted in red and shaped like the magatama. "Humans posses the natural capacity to produce and retain Psions and Pushions, not only as reserves of magical power, also as our thoughts memories and emotions. This is what we call the origin, or the origin of magical power. This..." Rebecca stated indicating the red crystal that was on the table between them. "Is a recreation of the memory part of the brain, using the same copy and past method that I do."

"Fascinating." Tatsuya stated as he made a flurry of scribbles with his note book. "But why crystal? And why only certain humans?"

"For your first question. The human mind is complicated, so complicated in fact that only few materials are able create a accurate recreation of it. Fewer still were around at the time this was made, even fewer would have lasted this long." Rebecca stated gesturing to the ruby like gem on the table like it was obvious. "Secondly. Psions and Pushions originate from the left and right sides of the brain, magic requires both, and only in this one specific organ located smack dab in the middle can the two of them come together. Most people don't have this section. Most of the people who do don't have a functioning version." Rebecca explained tapping on the organ in question. "Trying to copy and paste a part of the brain would be difficult, not only is there the information of the brain, but there's also all the memories thoughts and feelings building up psions and distorting the information. The same is true for this." Tatsuya explained gesturing to the ruby colored Oopart on the table. "Unless you can drain all the extra psions from it." Rebecca stated smirking knowingly at Tatsuya.

"Too true. So the alternate proposal you talked about. Psion fuel I believe it was." Tatsuya stated as he back tracked in his notes. Basically, the creation of psions and Pushions is the end result of a biochemical reaction in the brain, so rather than rely on a Psion fusion reactor the logical conclusion is to create a biochemical solution. A similar concept was used throughout the twenty first century in the form of fuel producing algae and bacteria. Not quite as potent as a Psion Fusion reactor, but much safer.

"And the Psion Fusion reactor?" Rebecca asked a suspicious look on her face.

"Shelved, until we can catch our gremlin. In any case." At once Tatsuya got up and put the Oopart in another silver colored case. "I should get this to Four Leaves and have them prepare it so that I can start trying to reproduced it tomorrow night."

* * *

While Rebecca and Tatsuya were busy discussing what they would be doing with the Oopart Klaud and Miyuki had gone to the store.

" _Are all girls like this or just the ones I know?_ " Klaud asked herself already half dressed in a outfit Miyuki had picked for her.

"Klaud are you done in there yet?" Miyuki shouted loud enough to be heard through the solid oak door.

"Almost Miyuki." Klaud replied in a tired tone of voice.

Exiting the changing room, Klaud stepped out in a gothic lolita outfit looking extremely embarrassed.

"Klaud you look so cute I just want to squeeze you!" Miyuki stated as she, as promised, waltzed over to Klaud and squeezed down on her... hard.

"Miyuki!" Klaud wheezed as she struggled to breath.

"Here try this one next!" Miyuki stated as she pushed Klaud into the changing stall with a sailor uniform.

"Yah know if I wanted to be used as a mannequin I could have just stayed home with Madison!" Klaud shouted before she exhaled sharply.

"I can't hear you you'll have to speak up!" Miyuki stated in a tone of voice that should be read as 'shut up and get dressed Klaud.'

" _I need to get new friends._ " Making that mental sigh Klaud stepped out in a caramel colored sweater dress.

"Perfect!" Miyuki stated bouncing up and down on her heels as she clapped her hands together. "Come on lets go get that paid for!" Miyuki stated grabbing Klaud by her sleeve and dragging her off.

"Not that I mind you buying clothes for me, but where are we going that you're in such a hurry!" Klaud shouted unknowingly doing a imitation of a noisy stubborn dog that was being dragged around by the leash.

"We're visiting Izao!" Miyuki stated as she shoved Klaud into a car.

"Izao? Didn't he try to screw with your brother's nuke?" Klaud asked looking at Miyuki with incredulous suspicion.

"But he's still a friend of yours, plus he wasn't trying to, which means that he could use a friend right now." Miyuki stated smiling happily while waving her finger in the air like a lecturer.

The self driving car arrived at the Hospital where Izao was being kept. In the lobby the pair met up with Mayumi and Mari, dressed in their regular clothes while they waited for the pair.

"Oh Klaud you look so adorable in that sweater!" Mayumi gushed holding her face into her hands.

"You guys planned this didn't you?" Klaud asked looking very tired.

"If it makes you feel any better Mayumi use to drag me into these situations all the time." Mari stated letting out a heavy sigh.

"I need to go get a drink." Klaud stated letting out a tired sigh.

Klaud went over to the vending machine nearby and popped a coin inside and selected a can of pop. When it soon became apparent that the machine had eaten her change Klaud had grown visibly annoyed. Suddenly a big meaty fist hit the machine from the side and several pop cans spilled out.

"Thanks." Klaud stated turning her attention to the big burly bear of a man that was sitting on the bench next to the machine.

"Welcome." The man replied not looking up from his news paper.

Making note about the man Klaud rejoined the group and together went into the elevator. In the mean time the man abruptly put his paper down and made for the stairs.

"Did that guy creep anyone else out?" Miyuki asked looking quite concerned.

"You mean the Great Asian Alliance spy? Yah they just keep getting worst." Klaud stated as if she was commenting about the weather.

"What?" Mayumi asked mixed looks of shock and confusion on her face.

"Did I stutter? He's a spy!" Klaud stated putting emphasis on each word.

"We got that part but what she means is how do you know he's a spy, did you meet him before or something?" Mari asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"Never seen him before in my life." Klaud stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Well then how do you know!" Mari snapped her hands on her hips and glaring Klaud in her eye.

"First was his news paper, it had a hole in it, and when you look at it from the other side you realize it's going right through the guy on the front cover's eye. So he's pulling the whole 'secret tunnel behind a painting with the eyes punched out' gag. Then there's his shoes." Klaud stated waving her finger in the air like a lecturer.

"What's wrong with his shoes? Tatsuya has them a size smaller." Miyuki stated looking equally confused as her classmates.

"They're tied using a knot they teach in the Chinese military. Finally there's the scars I saw going down his body, they're the same kind that Rebecca leaves on someone after she's done taking them apart and putting them back together, which probably means he was in the super soldier program." Klaud stated, stepping out of the elevator after it finished it's ascension.

"Let's assume that you're right on this, do you have any idea on why he's here, or what we're gonna do about him?" Mayumi asked rubbing the sides of her temples.

"Well Izao's here. Maybe he's after him?" Miyuki suggested holding her chin in her hand.

"No, no he was down in the lobby waiting for something, if he was after Izao then he would have beaten us up here already. Maybe he's waiting for whoever shows up to visit Izao." Klaud stated scratching the side of her head.

"You mean us?" Mayumi asked looking at Klaud incredulously.

Suddenly Klaud was knocked over by a table thrown at her from across the hallway, the one responsible none other than the same man Klaud met downstairs, Lu Gonghu.

"Didn't your mother's ever teach you not to spy on people behind their backs?" Lu asked cracking his knuckles.

"Didn't yours ever tell you not to toss tables at people!" Mari snapped, whipping out a tactical baton as the two girls who were still conscious on either side of her whipped out their C.A.D.s.

Lu only smiled in response before he charged forward. Miyuki led the counter offensive flinging several icicles at Lu, that he promptly dodge with agility that belies his impressive size. He entered fisticuffs range with Mari who kept her own using her baton to great effectiveness against the hulking brute of a man, blocking, dodging and weaving through his attacks though she quickly noted that she wasn't doing any damage against him when she did hit him.

"Super Soldier. Sometimes I hate it when Klaud's right!" Mari muttered looking her yellowed eye opponent in the orbs in question.

"Then let's hit him where there isn't any armor!" Saying that Mayumi fired a huge concentrated blast of light directly into the eyes of Lu blinding him momentarily.

"Ugh! Did anyone get the number of the guy that threw a table at me?" Klaud asked having finally gotten back up from the aforementioned event.

"Klaud! Good timing we could really use you to erase this guy right now!" Mari stated getting into a defensive stance as Lu got ready to attack again.

"Sorry. Don't got my card's with me right now." Klaud stated rubbing her head to the open shock of the group. "Ah well." Suddenly Klaud instantly closed the distance with Lu, shoving the business end of her staff in gun form into his mouth.

"So I guess we'll just have to settle for turning your brain into a pile of mush!" Pulling the trigger, a loud boom echoed throughout the hospital.

True with whatever manner of sub-dermal armor they use in these guys made them almost effectively invulnerable, but that protection does not extend to the inside of the mouth. Thus Lu collapsed to the ground, red colored goo leaking out of his eye sockets, nose, ears and mostly his mouth.

"Ew!" Miyuki shuddered looking at the man whose head was now hollowed out.

"So what do we do with him now?" Mari asked looking down at the corpse.

* * *

Outside of the Building which belongs to Four Leaves technologies Tatsuya and Rebecca arrived in another self driving car, together the two of them entered the building and met with a brown haired man with a afro.

"Tatsuya boss good to see you again!" The brown haired man stated waving his hand at Tatsuya.

"Ushiyama. I need you to look after this." Tatsuya stated bringing the case around and opening it to reveal the Oopart. "It's a artifact that can retain a large amount of psions for a prolonged period of time."

"Oh magic battery!" Ushiyama stated picking up the plain looking artifact and examining it.

"Basically yes. We need to somehow drain the excess of psions from it without damaging it, this way we can get a clean reading on it." Tatsuya explained before putting the artifact back inside and closing the case.

"Besides if we are trying to figure out how to mass produce this thing then learning how to use it first seems a good idea as any." Saying that Ushiyama picked the case before giving Tatsuya a salute.

"Don't worry boss we got it!" As the two made their way back to the car Tatsuya got a call from his sister. "Aha. We'll be right there." Hanging up the phone Tatsuya turned his attention to his traveling companion. "Miyuki and her friends just caught a spy, do you recognize him?" Tatsuya supplemented his question by holding up his phone, revealing a picture of Lu on it.

"Yep. He was less dead though."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: If by change you mean that his father's mistress still wants to be his wife and hates both of their guts.


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note** : No reviews, shame but lets move on. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 33: Mental Illness Eighth Grader Syndrome

Tatsuya certainly had a interesting proposal to make when he came into the lab the next day. Simply put, with the risk of a saboteur on the loose the risk that thermo-nuclear reactor presents was just too great. In fact some argued that it was just too dangerous period. But that said there was still this idea that Tatsuya had presented them with.

"Psion Biochemical fuel? No offense Tatsuya but we were hoping for something a little more..." Suzune stated waving her hand around looking for the right words.

"More?" One of the other members of the team suggested prompting Suzune to snap her fingers.

"I believe we've already established that a nuclear reactor is a bad idea." Tatsuya stated as he prepped the tanks that would be used for genetic engineering.

"Well more accurately a mad drunkard who happens to be your future science teacher told you so." Suzune stated confidently, not aware of the horror looming behind her.

"Tatsuya." A chill ran up Suzune's spine as she jumped out of the way and looked at Rebecca who was completely ignoring her. "Do you have that C.A.D that I wanted you to work on done yet?"

"Sure." Moving away from the tanks that he was tinkering with Tatsuya picked up the C.A.D that was on his desk and handed it to his science teacher. "Remind me why you want this thing so badly?" Tatsuya asked looking at the woman suspiciously.

"It's a gift. Now bugger off and finish your science project." With that rather rude goodbye Rebecca went about her business.

This algae had already undergone genetic engineering to suit their purposes, but on top of that Tatsuya had crossed into the experimental territory of magical engineering as well. Examining Miyuki's mind, who had a naturally extremely high psion count, Tatsuya had combined that information into the algae with Rebecca's help. He needed to create two separate strains of algae one producing Psions and the other producing Pushions. Separately the two would be of little use, psion algae seemed to spit out a infinite stream of nonsense, and Pushion Algae was having a similar effect to a hallucinogen. The final touch that they needed was the Oopart from Four Leaves. It wasn't like Tatsuya could just take the artifact and use it for their science project, but he could take his science project and use it for the artifact.

"It might be safer, but the Psion reactor would still produce more psions." Suzune stated crossing her arms and looking at the huge vats of fuel.

"Well the major problem is that it still requires that a magician be present, unless you know about any psion batteries I don't?" Tatsuya stated, aware of the hypocrisy of what he was saying.

"No, but without a battery this isn't much use either." Suzune stated examining the vats. "In any case we should probably be going to lunch now."

With that the team working on the reactor left the lab, which meant that her cue had arrived. A young girl had creep into the lab and went for the computer.

"Psion bio fuel? Not after I'm through with it!" The little stated as she prepared to punch in keys in a overly dramatic manner.

To be fair, she was new at this. On that note, a serpent of water snatched her up by her ankles and dangled her in the air.

"Now normally I'm rather merciful on little brat's like you." Klaud stated as she walked out from a corner of the room. "But you see, Tatsuya is my friend. That makes you my enemy." The little girl gulped in response.

* * *

A few minuets later Klaud had dragged the little brat off to the morals committee room. Technically speaking, as she was not actually attending school right now, Klaud was not a member of the Public morals committee. In actuality though, she had been told to go to a corner and sit, and sitting is what she had been doing since.

"Alright miss..." Mari perused the girl's file and identified her name. "Chiaki Hirakawa. What do you think you are doing?"

"I am seeking my revenge!" The girl stated in a overly dramatic manner.

Eighth grader, proper eighth grader too, right down to the delusions of grander and false bravado. This was gonna get messy.

"Who are you seeking revenge on?" Mari asked rubbing her temples and fending off a headache.

"As if I would reveal my intentions to the..."

Suddenly Chiaki's monologue was interrupted by Mari slammed her hands down on the arms of the chair and pinning the girl to the back of the chair with her forehead.

"WHO THE BLEEDING HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO GET REVENGE ON!?"

By now Chiaki had been cowed into the bottom of the seat, all of the facade of being a super villain gone from her shrunken form.

"Tatsuya..." The proper little girl who would not be doing any sort of mischief any time soon replied quietly.

"Why!?" Mari asked doing her best imitation of a rapid dog.

"Hirakawa?" Klaud stated noting that the little girl was far too busy trying to curl up out of existence to answer any sort of questions right now. "You aren't by chance related to a Keiko Hirakawa are you?"

For the purpose of having the girl speak to Klaud Mari spun her and her chair around to face her.

"Answer her!" Mari stated threateningly pulling the girl to sit up straight by her hair, to which she gave a furious nodding of her head.

"Keiko was in the NSC, I saved her from drowning after she got knocked out cold." Klaud explained folding her hands together. "Given the fact that your sister has been so badly traumatized that she can't even properly cast magic anymore aren't you causing her a lot of unnecessary stress?" Chiaki had tried to turn away, try mind you but was stopped by the threat of loosing a large amount of her hair to Mari. "Ah so that's what this is about. So tell me, what does Tatsuya have to do with your sister loosing her magical power? He wasn't her magical engineer for the event." Klaud asked shrugging her shoulders.

"'Not her magical engineer?'" Chiaki quoted in a almost disbelieving tone of voice. "Not her magical engineer!? What nonsense are you talking about the person who was quote on quote..." The girl stated complete with air quotations as her bravado reentered her voice. "'Single-handedly responsible for the sweeping unilateral victory of 1st high school at the Nine School's Competition!' If he had given enough of a damn about my sister to show up and protect her!" At this statement Mari let out a growl, one that caused the girl to shrink again as she was spun around to face her.

"Excuse me, bratty little girl who has no idea what she is talking about!" Mari stated a cool glare in her eyes that would make a seasoned veteran shrink with fear. "Tatsuya was my engineer during the competition! And I got my ass turned into a crash bag for another student!"

"But it wasn't your C.A.D that was..."

"What does that matter!? Do you know why First high lost as many matches as it had? Contrary to popular belief our school did not have a unilateral victory. It was because we made the 'foolish mistake' of actually giving Tatsuya the time to be a god-damn human and rest once in a while!" Mari snapped dropping the girl into the chair to cower, though this time she didn't make the mistake of looking away. "And because we gave him time to rest and not be the machine that he's all too fond of pretending to be, we won more matches than we lost and more people didn't get hurt because he wasn't making mistakes from exhaustion! If you wanna blame someone for what happened to your sister, blame the Chinese you! Yah miserable gremlin!"

"Chinese!? What do you mean by Chinese?" Chiaki asked a look of horror on her features.

That got Klaud curious. She took out a picture from her phone, her father's contact list for Japan, and showed Chiaki a picture of a familiar purple haired man.

"Do you know this man?" Klaud didn't need Chiaki to answer her question, the look of fear on her features was proof enough. "Leave, and don't you let us catch you pulling this kind of stunt again or I promise you I will do far worst then carrying you across the school upside down by your ankles is that clear?" Nodding once, the girl bolted out of the room.

"Klaud what aren't you telling us?" Mari asked eyeing Klaud suspiciously.

"A lot of things actually." Klaud stated letting out a tired yawn. "Call a team meeting Mari. This one's gonna be a doosy."

* * *

As requested Mari had messaged everyone on her short list of 'when something goes wrong' in this case that was Mayumi, Katsuho, Erika, Leo, Miyuki, Tatsuya and most recently Rebecca.

"So you're saying that the man who raised you two, is not only a criminal for the same Chinese based international criminal organization that tried to butcher our classmates a couple of months ago." Mayumi stated a look of total dread on her features as she paced back and forth. "But he's also the brains behind a Chinese rebellion aiming to overthrow his countries regime. And to top it off, this man, has a agent operating in this very city, who sent a delusional eighth grader to turn Tatsuya's reactor into a bomb and cook his magic fuel?"

"Yah, look, I'm not proud of all the stuff my family gets into." Klaud stated her chin on top of her folded hands. "Hell, my own sister made the guy who tried to snap us in two the other day."

"Guilty." Rebecca stated holding her hand in the air.

"Which is part of the reason why I don't talk about these things." Klaud stated sounding very, very tired.

"And speaking of the very unpleasant overgrown teddy bear." Mayumi stated, now turning her attention to Tatsuya who was sitting at the far side of the room. "How is the former corpse doing?"

"He remembers dying, very traumatizing. Even for a special forces soldier that has had god knows what done to him by her." Tatsuya stated indicating Rebecca. "I've given him to Maylin. Hopefully a few cards can pry some information out of him."

"Obviously, they're going after the Thesis competition." Erika stated in a tone which implied it was obvious. "So is there anything else of note we should know about?"

"My father's mistress is a employee of Four Leaves Technology. A couple of nights ago she was assigned the task of transporting a rare Oopart with the ability to store large portions of psions by american agents." Tatsuya stated prompting the others to stare. "Fortunately, the artifact had already been passed off to the companies capable hands, and thanks to Klaud's intervention their attempt to kidnap her ended in our favor."

"Okay, so lemme get this straight." Mayumi stated as she entered a life or death struggle with a headache. "We have the Great Asian alliance planning a invasion. The Americans sneaking around snatching ancient magic batteries. Are the Russians lurking anywhere or do we have everything covered?"

"I haven't heard of anything." Katsuho stated speaking for the group who looks like they haven't heard of anything from their European enemies.

"Great so we got people with guns from two different countries..."

"Three counting Japan." Erika stated raising her hand, prompting Mayumi to shoot her a look that could sink a ship at being interrupted.

"From three different countries, running round our town, doing as they please with us and our school! Anyone have any ideas on what we're gonna do about them?"


	34. Chapter 34

**Author's Note** : Another day, another chapter. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 34: Magical Military Tactics: Enemy of my Enemy

Zhou Gongjin returned to his apartment paper bag of groceries in hand and turned the key. Walking inside he turned light on and went to the fridge to put his groceries away. It was then that he noticed his fridge suspiciously empty. True, he was running low on supplies, that was the reason why he had went for groceries in the first place. Still there should be cartons full of left over food inside of his fridge from the days prior.

"Hmm. My compliments to the chef!" Looking over the fridge door Zhou saw three people sitting on his couch, Klaud, the red headed girl to her left, and the large brute of a young man to her right, eating his left overs. "I suppose you were right Erika, you just can't beat Chinese food made by someone from China!"

"Naturally." The smaller girl stated responding to the large man's compliments.

"Before you do anything exceptionally stupid." Klaud started before she processed another Chicken ball. "The sniper on that roof top specializes in taking people apart molecule by molecule." Klaud stated pointing out the window at a building across the street.

"Sounds like I better sit down." Zhou stated sitting in the love seat across from the trio. "So to what have I done that warrants the three of you breaking into my apartment and eating all of my left overs?"

"Actually we were just hungry, we all rushed over here after class." Leo stated as he downed more of the contents of the takeout box.

"As for coming here we came here to investigate why you sent a delusional eighth grader to sabotage our projects for the thesis competition!" Klaud snapped, having had about enough of her two classmates bickering for the past three hours.

"Are you referring to the Psion reactor? Well, the Great Asian Alliance demanded that I get the inside scoop on your little competition. Your classmate came to me actually, propaganda and general paranoia led her to deduce that I was the most well equipped individual to provide her the means to make sure any project the Shiba boy comes up with would fail." Zhou stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Which you did." Klaud stated looking rather annoyed.

"I merely gave her one of your sister's old note books, containing everything that she needed to know to make the reactor fail in a manner that would not result in everyone's brains being turned to mush. Truthfully after what happened to your sister's reactor I wasn't fond of the idea of it happening again." Zhou explained looking quite serious about the topic.

"Wait what happened to Rebecca's reactor?" Erika asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"It was a lot like what Tatsuya does when he shoots people, only a lot slower." Klaud stated in a tired tone of voice.

"You mean the whole..." Erika asked fearfully before Klaud continued.

"Molecule by molecule bit? Yah basically." Klaud stated before turning her attention back to Zhou.

"Wait wait wait. That still doesn't change the fact that this jerk face has been spying on us for the Great Asian Alliance." Leo stated accusingly pointing Zhou.

"He hasn't been spying on us, he's been feeding false information to the GAA for my family. They were going to invade the city anyway, only now over half of that invasion is going to be planned out using false information. And I know that he's been feeding them false information cause he's gonna tell them that the Americans stole the Oopart that they're both after." Klaud stated confidently.

"And under what basis am I informing them of this information? A lie only works if somebody believes it after all." As Zhou asked this a explosion was heard off in the distance. With Klaud's knowing smirk, Zhou walked over to the window and spotted smoke and flame in the same area that he knew Four Leaves Technology had made it's base of operation. "Oh, well played."

"I thought so." Klaud stated getting up and stretching out her back. "Well time for us to go already. See yah." With Klaud's goodbye the three First High students left the cramped confines of the apartment.

* * *

In the offices of a private investigation agency by the name of Paper Trail Sayuri was having a meeting with a large man in a trench coat. She had presented him with a folder and he was examining a photo of a familiar red colored artifact.

"And this artifact was stolen last night?" The large man asked holding up the photograph.

"Yes." Sayuri stated, it wasn't a lie in a manner speaking, it certainly felt stolen.

"Do you know why?" The man stated looking at the woman suspiciously.

"Based on the amount of money I handed over at the pickup, I would imagine that it's quite valuable, on top of that it was obtained illegally which is part of the reason why I can't go to the proper authorities with for this, the other is that should my employers find out that it's missing it would be extremely bad for my health." Sayuri stated as she carefully choose which facts to share with the man in front of her.

"Do you have any suspects?" The man in the chair asked folding his hands and resting them on the desk.

"These pictures were taken from our security camera's in the weeks before the explosion." Sayuri stated as she fished several grey photos out from the folder, circles around the faces of people who appeared several times, including a rather large man smoking cigarettes. "We believe that they were casing our building in preparation for the break in." Sayuri stated leaning back into her chair.

Taking the pictures and putting them through a scanner the detective ran facial recognition through a select database and confirmed that the men in the pictures were indeed Great Asian Alliance spies.

"My apologies but these men do not appear in any known database. I can send a few of my men to your workplace this afternoon to begin collecting evidence." The detective stated, even Sayuri able to tell that he was lying, which meant that she had sufficiently convinced him.

"In that case I'll leave you be." Saying that Sayuri got up, bowed a little, before finally leaving the office.

Once she had left the detective picked up the phone and dialed the first number on his speed dial.

"It's Seven of Nine. Get me HQ... A Four Leaves Technology employee just hired us to locate the Oopart, it was stolen by the GAA." The American Detective explained in perfect English.

* * *

In the mean time Sayuri left the building and entered her car, getting into a passenger seat as the self driving vehicle's autopilot prepared to go on it's way.

"It's done. Now where is the Oopart?" Sayuri asked delivering a scathing glare at Tatsuya who was sitting beside her.

"In the hands of the only people I can trust to keep it safe. I'll take you to them now." Tatsuya explained as he absent minded worked on a C.A.D.'s programming. The pair arrived outside of a run down apartment building.

" _Fair enough, looking like crap on the outside is just going to give people the idea that there's nothing inside worth stealing._ " Is what Sayuri thought, before she noticed that the inside was just as bad as well.

Finally Tatsuya led her to the only decent looking apartment in the entire building, even then it was sit up more like a command center than a vault, with the Kinomoto sisters, the big three of First High, the Shiba siblings, and only police officer who looked like he just had the life scared out of him doing everything thing from sitting on a couch watching multiple camera feeds on the TV to working on the several laptops that were dotting the apartment.

"Cute, Cute. Now where's the artifact that you people stole!" Sayuri shouted glaring at the assembled mis-mashed crowd of people.

To this end, Klaud got up from the couch, went over to a nearby picture hanging on the wall, and opened the not so cleverly disguised door to reveal a safe. Holding her face up to the safe, it scanned it and confirmed that she was indeed it's owner and swung open. Klaud took the suitcase out and put it on the table, allowing Sayuri to walk up to it and hold both of her thumbs over the built in scanner, confirming that she was indeed the one who was suppose to transport it when it popped open to reveal the Oopart inside. Satisfied she slammed the suitcase shut and prepared to leave, intending to have no more part of this madness she went for the door.

"You can take this the wrong way if you want, BUT I NEVER WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU PEOPLE AGAIN!" Sayuri shouted stepping through the door, only to be stopped by a grab by Tatsuya. "What do you want now?" Sayuri stated in a almost growl.

"I just thought you'd want to check where you were walking." Tatsuya replied in a casual tone of voice.

"What are you..." It was at this time that Sayuri looked forward and she realized that she was about to step of a edge with a thousand foot drop, the sight of a massive winding maze off in the distance. "KYAAAH!" Sayuri was so frightened that she leaped up, wrapped her arms and legs around the stoic Tatsuya in a hug, and began hyperventilating.

"I know the Kinomoto's are terrifying aren't they?" Tatsuya asked while Klaud pried the suitcase out of Sayuri's hands and Katsuho pried her off of him.

After a little bit of work the three of them were finally separated and the suitcase went back into the vault and Sayuri was sat down on the couch with the police officer, their faces matching looks of terror. The officer handed Sayuri a cup and she downed it's contents wordlessly.

"That's everyone." Tatsuya explained while he joined the others watching the TV.

Several camera's fed it feeds of both the Detective Agency, the China Town district and the docks.

"Let the games begin!" Klaud stated rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

Soon both parties went into action, the original tracker used to identify the location of the Oopart but was now located in the folder Sayuri gave to the Americans led the Great Asian Alliance to their front door. Immediately they shot out the lock on the door and stormed inside guns blazing. The people inside were no slouches on the offense either, half of them had a roll of carbon nanotubes under their desks that they then raised up into the air and created personal shields from them using magnetic fields to block the incoming projectiles. The other half let loose with rifles both magical and projectile in nature, the latter did little good against the bullet proofed uniforms of the Chinese soldiers, the former had mixed success with the various forms of projectiles. The Chinese soldiers parted ways to allow a familiar big lumbering man with a loose resemblance to a grisly bear to storm in.

"Hey didn't that loser get thrown into military custody?" Mari asked pointing at Lu Gong Ju who was rampaging around the office.

"Zhou had to return him to make his intelligence sound believable. Course that was after he got drugged to the teeth." Maylin explained lounging on the couch while looking up at the screen.

Indeed the Humanoid grisly bear did indeed appear to be slower, which allowed one of the Americans to catch him off guard and bind him with one of their Carbon Nanotube shields and making him into a even more bullet proofed shield.

"Oh the Americans seem to be holding up well. What about the Chinese?" Zhou had managed to make everyone completely avoid China Town, keeping himself and the people under his care safe in the process.

That left the full wrath of the American special forces to fall upon the docks. People dressed like ninjas were running through the cargo containers using magic enhanced blades to slice at the Chinese personnel. The ones that caught on to the unwelcome intrusion however hit back hard. Cargo containers exploded as sizable mecha's were piloted and used scissor like chain saws the length of a car to slash at the incoming personnel.

"Oh looks like they're bringing out the big guns now!" Klaud stated as she watched bullets uselessly bounce off of the armor hides of the robotic tanks.

"Quite. This little show is very informative of what kinds of weapons we can expect when the GAA invade don't you think officer Chiba?" Maylin asked directing her attention to the nervous police officer.

"Gi-gi-gia-gi...!" His stuttering was interrupted by his overwhelming compulsion to down another glass.

"I think we broke him." Miyuki stated letting out a sigh. "Erika's gonna kill us."

After some struggling Lu finally broke free of his restraints before rampaging around the office and leaving it a bloodied mess. After having torn through the entire office he found the tracker in the uppermost floor, and enraged he crushed it realizing that they had been tricked. Likewise at the docks what looked like a young woman in a ski mask took aim at the tanks with what looked like a oversize rifle that she shouldn't able to carry and fired, obliterating the machines in a wave of magic.

"I can't tell what kind of magic that was from the footage, I'll have to get a look at the area when I get the chance." Tatsuya stated rubbing his chin.

When The Americans were finally done tearing the place apart they found neither hide nor hair of the Oopart, a communication they received from the Chinese Strike Team that was meant for someone they had killed confirmed that the Chinese thought they had it.

"Enemy of my enemy." Rebecca stated as she turned off the camera's.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.


	35. Chapter 35

**Author's Note** : My dad's back in town and my computer's having a mini meltdown, so I don't know whether or not I'll get the next chapter done on time.

* * *

Chapter 35: Magical Warfare Tactics: Preparation

The task force assembled to deal with the foreign combatants ultimately decided to stay in Klaud's apartment complex that night, and were now in the process of getting ready for the days to come. In the small restaurant that was attached to the side of the one time bed and breakfast and which now served as Klaud's dining room and kitchen Klaud and Tatsuya were already getting, Tatsuya having already ate and Klaud getting her breakfast. Tatsuya put the phone back on the receiver having just finished the call with one of his military contacts.

"The Americans have pulled out of the country." Tatsuya stated flatly to the assembled task force in Klaud's apartment. "The CIA, DIA, and various other Alphabet agencies have officially disavowed the American agents and they are more than likely sneaking out of the country the same way that they came in if they have not already."

"Well that's one of our problems taken care of." Klaud stated dressed in her pajama's and poring a bowl of cereal. "So does that mean that we can let clingy go now?"

By 'Clingy' Klaud was of course referring to Sayuri who having experienced first hand Klaud's reality and space warping powers was in a complete stated of terror and had been impatiently waiting for this nightmare of a day to be over.

"I don't see why not." Tatsuya stated shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm free?" Clearly Sayuri's ears were burning. "I'M FREE!" At which point in time the would be prisoner ran out of the room and fell off into another of Maze's pitfalls.

"Inari if you wouldn't Mind." The familiar in question promptly transformed and jumped out the door after Sayuri coming back moments later dragging the woman back inside by the scruff of her her shirt. "Good boy!" Klaud promptly pored another bowl of milk and Inari came over and began drinking it happily, dropping the fetal Sayuri at the table in the process.

"What about the GAA?" Tatsuya asked aware of the fact that looking in on the Chinese special forces that had infiltrated the city was the Kinomoto sister's job.

"Zhao called a few minuets ago, a cargo ship full of various unpleasant things left Hong Kong yesterday and will be here in time for the thesis competition." Klaud explained as she began eating her breakfast.

"And what did your father have to say about that?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"He's arranged for a batch of defective artillery shells to be included in their shipment. They'll go in just fine, but coming out, that's another story." Klaud explained as she finished with her cereal.

"So we won't have to worry about heavy artillery bombardment. Anything else?" Tatsuya asked as his eyes went to the other people who were just arriving from their own apartments.

"Not much. There is a limit to the amount of harassment my father can put the GAA through before they start to become suspicious, and that makes over throwing them a lot harder." Klaud stated as she got up to put her bowl in the sink. "Do not mistake my father's intentions for something else, the GAA failing this operation is in my father's own interests. If it succeeds then the GAA would be much stronger, if they fail they'll be weaker, and there's also the fact that me and my sisters would be safer as well." Klaud stated as the others got ready to make their own breakfasts.

"Discussing the enemy forces are we?" Mayumi asked as she took the box of cereal Klaud had abandoned.

"The Americans are out, and the GAA are going to be in for a rude surprise if they attempt artillery bombing." Tatsuya explained summarizing the information he and Klaud had shared.

"What about those giant robots? I'm not fond of giant robots." Mari asked carton of eggs in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other.

"As I understand it." Klaud threw The Illusion Card onto the table and it projected a three dimensional blue print of the machines in question. "They're sorta like mech suits for mages. This here is a boost box." Klaud stated as she used her staff to highlight a circular cylinder in the upper parts of the mech. "They took magicians with magic they thought would be good for combat, mass cloned them, carved the brains out of them and stuffed them into these little boxes. In this case they're using some type of high powered shield similar to the Jyumonji clan's." Mari quickly put the eggs back into the fridge and the bread back into the box, having lost her appetite.

"I had a uncle who was captured by the GAA once. Never did find out what happened to him." Katsuto stated scratching his chin, strongly suspecting that the two were connected.

"The rest of their armaments are significantly less terrifying. Their bodies are constructed out of type of Carbon Nanotube based artificial muscle tissue. According to Rebecca at their size and weight that gives them a lifting capacity of roughly ten tons. The one attached to the right arm is a high frequency chainsaw, it has enough cutting power to rip this city in half. The other is a rail gun, of the diamond projectile variety." Klaud explained before offering some explanation. "Which I guess are still terrifying, but not in the same way."

"Great. So how are we gonna beat these guys?" Miyuki asked as her toast jumped a couple of inches into the air behind her.

"Well we got these." Klaud stated putting her deck of cards on the table again. "Quiet can evacuate most of the people when the bullets start to fly."

"That many people?" Mari asked looking surprised.

"Well, there are certain bare minimum requirements. They have to be making noise, so that covers everyone who starts panicking and such, and she can only move them short distances. Quiet wasn't built for mass evacuation, she was made to silence the bickering of Clow Reed's familiars." Klaud stated scratching her chin.

"But if we can move everyone in the town close to some where safe, can Quiet get them all as well." Mayumi asked scratching her chin.

"Yes but that isn't the only issue here. There are three types of reactions to a dangerous situation, fight, flight or freeze. Quiet can only grab the people who are running scared, but the people who clam up and play dead are going to be a lot harder for her." Klaud stated scratching her chin.

"If possible, I would like for her to ignore the ones willing to fight." Katsuto stated as he sat down at the table and folded his hands together. "If we are to fend off a invasion, then a army of able bodied volunteers would be a boon to that process. Perhaps we should also try to coordinate with the other schools as well."

"I will discuss it with Quiet, but I can't promise that she'll be able to make the distinction on her own." Klaud stated waving her hand off dismissively.

"Then leave the ones that Quiet can't grab to us." Mayumi stated a warm smile on her features. "I know just the girl for the job."

"So the next question here is what are we gonna do with offense?" The ever aggressive Mari asked eyeing the deck of cards expectantly.

"As a start, both the mechs and the super soldiers are gonna be fire proof. Heat based attacks are gonna be no good." Klaud stated eyeing Miyuki, giving her a non too subtle hint. "On the other hand, if we can incapacitate those brain's in jars say for example by using ice to give em a bad case of brain freeze, that'll make those walkers easier to take down."

"I'll do what I can." Miyuki stated smiling at the vote of confidence.

"Obviously though, me and Tatsuya are gonna be the heavies during this time. My cards and his brute force and tactical mind are gonna be major players during this time." Klaud stated leaning on her fist.

"I'll do my best to live up to the expectations." Tatsuya stated with his signature poker face and matching calmness.

"Hey here's a thought, if we know that they're coming why don't we put up a few nasty surprises for them?" Mari asked cocking a curious brow.

"Maylin, Madison and Rebecca went off to do that hours ago." Klaud stated dismissively with a displeased expression. "Trust me. This town will look like a war zone by the time those three are done with it."

* * *

Inside of one of Madison's fashion boutiques, the three Kinomoto sisters were working in the hidden back room. This back room was not merely for the use of storing unmentionables away from prying eyes, though one might mistake it for that at first blush. No this was for Madison's other business, smuggling. Fire arms, armor, magic weapons, bio, chemical, explosive. Anything someone might need to start a invasion, or put one down.

"Did yah get it?" Madison asked looking at Maylin as she hauled a rather large container into the room.

"Retsu sends his thanks." Maylin stated opening the crate full black and high tech body armor was revealed.

"These are for the troops?" Rebecca asked examining the armor and ultimately deeming it adequate.

"Special forces group. They want it loaded on a truck ready and sent to the ware house. This one." Maylin stated indicating the crate behind her. "Is for Tatsuya and is to be sent to the community center."

"Not a problem, I'll just send it over with Klaud's new battle costume later." Madison stated waving her hand dismissively. "Speaking of which, are we clear about our opening volley?"

"The city streets are excellent choke holds, and the now emptied stores the perfect location to stash our explosives. They walk in, we take them out." Maylin stated waving off her sister's concerns. "Wave two we open up guns blazing, I doubt even the latest of their military weapons hold a candle to the erase and shield cards. If they do though, Rebecca's got better guns."

"Which leads to our next problem of how we're gonna get this stuff in place?" Rebecca stated looking un-amused.

"Leave that to me. I got people on the parade preparations committee and the department of sanitation who'll have this city set up like an armory." Maylin had already done a crude sketch over a city map, explosives hidden in display cases, turrets inside of water towers, knockout gas pumped through fire hydrants. The incoming GAA soldiers will be in for a world of hurt.

"You watched too much home alone as a kid didn't you?" Madison asked a big grin on her face. "Come on you two we have work to do."

* * *

At a nearby temple, a bald headed man with a scar going over one eye was observing the people there train, including some new recruits. When Erika and Leo asked Tatsuya where the best place train was, he recommended this dojo which taught him the Shinobi arts, blending together ancient magic with ninja skills. Thus following his instructions they rounded up various close quarters combat experts from the kenjutsu club, the kendo club, the skeet shooting club, the Public Morals Committee and whoever else volunteered. Officially, they were forming a student militia to defend the school from another Blanche incident, which wasn't wrong. Admittedly, they knew that they didn't have much time to train, but that was only half of the task force, the other was putting together C.A.D.'s that could put up a decent fight.

"We've already copied Tatsuya's air mine formula onto several rifle and gun type C.A.D.'s." Shizuka explained looking at the progress report of their department. "And we've had lots of luck applying anchoring magic to Carbon nanotube sheets for instant shields, the same has been applied to strips for collapsible weapons though we haven't found a formula that combines that with the high frequency vibration formula yet."

"Alright then we'll let the boss lady know." Erika stated giving the shorter girl a thumbs up in approval.

"Do you know where Tatsuya is? He's a lot better suited to this project than I am." Shizuka stated looking at the trio of individuals leading this little project with suspicion.

"As I understand it he had a lot of last minuet work to do on the thesis competition." Leo stated waving the young girl off. "Don't worry he'll be assuming his rightful place as king of both nerds and bad-asses alike just as soon as he finishes up." Satisfied with this information, Shizuka went back to her post as temporary general manager. "Katsuto is gonna want us working security for the event yah know." Leo stated waving Shizuka off.

"Which also means that we're gonna have a bunch of underage and poorly trained noobs working support." Erika let out a sigh as she non the less continued to smile and wave. "Oh this is gonna be a tough one isn't it?"

"Yep pretty much." Leo replied pulling Erika into a one armed bear hug.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Yah know the old saying, The Enemy of my Enemy makes for a excellent bullet sponge.


	36. Chapter 36

**Author's Note** : So, Dad's going back tonight, which means that all my time for writing has just been freed up again, so that's a thing. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 36: Magical Warfare: Engagement

Outside of the local community center, buses full of students from the other eight of the nine magical schools were lining up outside. From Third high leading their security detail was 'Crimson Prince' Masaki Ichijou, followed shortly there after by Cardinal George. This made sense after all, it was the opening volleys of the Thesis competition.

"We're not going to escort the projects inside?" George asked as he saw Masaki walking towards the community center instead of the truck with the projects inside.

"I've received a invitation for tea. It would be rude to refused." Masaki stated as he walked to the school. "You on the other hand are free to join me, or join the security detail."

Letting out a sigh George allowed Masaki to go make googly eyes at Klaud while he went to work doing his job.

* * *

Inside a private room normally reserved for sports teams to change into their uniforms Klaud had finished making a pot of tea just in time for Masaki to walk inside.

"I got your message." Masaki stated closing the door and giving himself a little bit of privacy for what he hoped to be a pleasant encounter. "Business or pleasure?"

"Business." Klaud stated seriously as she pored Masaki a cup.

"Hmm. Pity." Masaki stated sitting down on the other side of the table from Klaud. "Well if it isn't a date I would like to ask you out on one." Masaki stated shrugging his shoulders.

"And where would you take me on this hypothetical date of yours?" Klaud asked cocking a suspicious brow at Masaki.

"Unfortunately I don't know you or the area well enough to make any suggestions." Masaki stated with another shoulder shrug.

"Lovely. So can we talk about the thing that I asked you here about?" Klaud asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Go ahead. If something's bothering you then I would like to know if I can do something about it." Masaki stated attempting to sound supportive. Immediately Klaud proceeded to play the footage from the battles between both the GAA and the Americans leaving the Third High ace stunned. "So what you're saying, is that the Americans and the Chinese decided to host the Fourth World War on our welcome mat and no knows about it?" Masaki asked staring incredulously at Klaud.

"Well we know about it. We were the ones who got them to do it." Klaud stated, prompting Masaki to make a eye roll. "Well it's not like it's the worst idea we ever had, I mean the streets aren't exactly jammed pack full of people like in the old days."

"Cute, did you accomplish anything productive with that little stunt?" Masaki asked looking at Klaud with an annoyed look on his features.

"Well the Americans were chased out of the country." Klaud stated sounding slightly nervous.

"And the Chinese?" Masaki asked suspiciously.

"They're kinda, sorta, planning to siege the convention center the day of the thesis competition." Klaud stated awkwardly scratching the back of her head.

If there were crickets in the room, they'd be putting a orchestra on right now, as Masaki just stared, his jaw lining the floor, before a loud smack signalling the moment that his palm met his face before metaphorically and literally wiped the shock off of his face.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't pack up my classmates and head home right now?" Masaki stated not amused by the sudden revelation about the hostile military force that were planning to attack the place all of his classmates just set up shop in.

"I'll go on a date with you, wherever you wanna go." Klaud stated sounding just as uneasy about this situation as Masaki was.

"Okay." Past tense evidently, as Masaki agreed to lend a helping hand with a 180 degree personality turn that was down right scary. "So I assume that you have a plan to deal with these people, aside from lining up a massive number of cannon fodder for them to shoot down?"

* * *

The Next day the competition was underway, at the same time though, a Chinese cargo ship arrived down at the docks, from which several big rig trucks drove off and and headed into the town, making a beeline for the convention center. Having been observed by officer Chiba, who had calmed down since his harrowing experience with spacial warping magic, and informed the people at the convention center of what was going on. The first of the trucks parked in the under ground parking area from which several soldiers, included among them Lu Gonghu who for the occasion opted to dress in a ceremonial tiger costume.

"Guess Klaud's not the only one who likes to play dress up." Erika stated watching the arriving Chinese soldiers get out of their truck via security camera. "Speaking of are yah ready yet Klaud?"

* * *

Inside of the locker room Klaud had just finished getting dressed in her new battle costume. It certainly wasn't built for stealth, patches of bright red and yellow with polka dots and stripes with large poofy sleeves and pant legs, a large frilled collar and bells on the ends of her equally color blind jester hat and shoes. Klaud had small thanks for the crystal cut mask that had been decorated to resemble the face of a clown.

"Nice!" This was because the person who was getting dressed with Klaud was none other than Masaki Ichijou, and thus the clown mask hid her massive blush. "Is this spider silk pleated with carbon nano tubes and cotton?" Masaki stated grabbing a hold of the loose material around Klaud's arm, causing her to nearly faint from surprise.

"Is that really the most impressive thing you just saw?" Klaud asked sounding a bit annoyed.

"Of course not but if I talked about that I would be so nervous I'd never be able to get two words in." Now Klaud's face was a read as the rosy cheeks of her mask. "Are you done getting ready? Because I'd really like to deal with these guys before they get to our classmates."

"G-G-Give me a sec." Klaud went over to her bag and loaded what looked like C.A.D. but decoratively given a cover similar to a hard cover book's sleeve. Klaud took the C.A.D. out of the sleeve and loaded it into her staff.

"What's that? You haven't gone modern on us now have you?" Masaki asked smirking at the mechanized looking staff.

"It's my book, containing all of my cards and this other one is my staff." Klaud stated resting the staff on her shoulder as she turned around to face the door. "Come on they won't be in the parking lot forever." After confirming with Erika that the GAA soldiers were still there they set out to work, making their way to the parking structure Klaud went to work. "First off, lets trap em like rats." Saying that, Klaud set her secondary C.A.D. to the Loop card, then she simply tapped the bottom of the staff on the ground.

"Okay... what did that do?" Masaki stated detecting no noticeable change to the environment.

"Open that door." Klaud stated pointing to the door behind her that the two of them just came through.

Doing as he was told Masaki was greeted by a strange sight. Last he checked he was on the bottom floor of the parking structure, yet this looked suspiciously like the top, there wasn't a ramp for cars to go up even further, more important than that though this was a hallway that connected the parking structure to the convention center last time he checked, which it should be noted was not even five minuets ago.

"Oh well played! I heard a rumor you had some kind of space manipulation power." Masaki stated closing the door. "But won't they simply try to jump over the barriers?" Masaki explained indicating the barriers a fair distance away.

"Oh really." Klaud tapped her staff again, releasing the power of another card to no visible effect. "Why don't you try it yourself?"

Humoring Klaud, Masaki walked over to the barrier and hopped over, and immediately found himself on the other side of the structure.

"Oh well played. What is it some kind of illusion?" Masaki asked as he stuck his upper body over the edge and could see his butt off in the distance.

"Gotta keep some of my secrets." Klaud stated as she headed for the ramp leading to floor above.

"I think your priorities are a little eschewed there Klaud." Masaki stated smirking recalling the little show he was treated to earlier.

The two of them could hear the marching of the soldiers from the GAA starting to walk down to the lower levels where they were located.

"Let's go with something unpleasant shall we?" Tapping her staff again Klaud this time produced a more visible effect in that some type of walking shadow emerged from the ground. "The shadow card, in case it wasn't blatantly obvious."

"I see, but can it halt their advance?" Masaki asked pointing at the shadowy figure.

"It can catch lightning I think it can catch a few loser soldiers from China." Klaud stated as she began heading back down stairs.

The two went in through the door where the Loop card connected them to the top floor, where in they discovered the semi-truck/converted base camp for the GAA soldiers. Speaking of whom, the sound of gun fire from down below confirmed that they had already run into shadow.

"Let's be quick shall we?" Firstly Klaud's staff turned into a gun which she used to fire the lightning card into the truck, having it set to work hacking their computers. Next with a second volley she unleashed water, which then proceeded to make it's way down the levels flooding them as it went.

"Wow you don't hold back do you?" Masaki asked looking at the torrent of water that would undoubtedly flood the several floors below them.

"It's alright, Water'll only knock em out." Klaud stated as she observed the flooded ramp. "I'm more worried about the one that isn't knocked out."

"What do you mean the one that isn't knocked out?" Masaki asked looking shock.

Suddenly a huge spurt of water popped out of the opening in the floor like a geyser and revealed the costumed form of Lu Gonghu.

"Oh." Lu smashed his fists into the ground as the two Japanese students dodged out of his way.

"Yohza, and I thought Madison was colorblind." Klaud muttered as her staff turned into a gun. "This time when I take you apart I'm not putting you back together again!" Loading the erase card into the activation sequence of her C.A.D. Klaud fired the bolt of magical power, only for it to collide with a energy field and was instantly dismantled. "Of course they've got Antinite, they were trying to attack magicians. Masaki! Plan B!"

"Plan B? Do we have a plan B?" Masaki asked as he ducked out of the way of a round house swing from Lu.

"Keep him busy!"

Firstly Klaud removed the enchantment from the loop card, then she used the power card to smash several pillars the concrete floor and roof, before picking them up with the Earthy card and hurling them at top speeds thanks to the use of the speed card. Even with the use of Antinite to nullify the magic being used to hurl the stones they maintained the momentum and direction and therefore hurt very much when they had a head long collision with Lu, in spite of his sub-dermal armor.

"Remember me?" Klaud asked standing a few feet away from Lu.

Snarling, Lu gunned after Klaud, the illusion of her dissipating as soon as it collided with his anti-magic barrier. Taking him by surprise, Klaud smashed his legs with a huge pillar tripping him up and sending him flat on the ground, she followed that up with a second swing golf style sending him clear of the building and crashing him into the ground with a hard smash.

"Think that got em?" Masaki asked as he ran over and looked over the edge at the man who made a mini crater in the pavement.

"Nope." True to Klaud's predictions the near indestructible man got out of the ground and brushed himself off. "But this will." Suddenly large chunks of the building were ripped off and were flung at the ground creating a box that the super soldier was now trapped in. With a sound similar to a roar Lu tore through the concrete barrier, but Klaud was faster, already she was on the ground level, having landed safely thanks to the jump card, and removed the Antinite bracelet on Lu's arm disabling his ability to jam magic. With that out of the way Klaud could now do what she wanted to do in the first place and shot the outstretched hand with the Erase card's power, turning the super soldier into gas on the wind. "Any of you still conscious?" Klaud asked looking at the Chinese soldiers who had just come flooding out of the building unconscious. "Good flunkies, but let's make sure." Klaud stated as the ground beneath them swallowed them and buried them up to their necks. "Now than." Klaud turned her attention to the rest of the city, where she saw pillars of smoke from her sister's traps going off. "Time to deal with the rest."

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Hornofdesolation: Hope I didn't disappoint.

Duked: Well, to be fair, in the Canon no one had the top dog in a major Chinese criminal organization for a dad.


	37. Chapter 37

**Author's Note** : Happy Easter everyone! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 37: Magical Warfare: Mid-salvo

In the streets the magi-mechs were going through the streets on their way to the convention center. The fact that no one was on the street in the middle of the work week and their lack of contact with the advance team meant that they had seen them coming. Just as that same advanced team had also confirmed that the projects were delivered to the community center. Thus speed over stealth were the key here, hence the slow moving cargo trucks had been ditch in favor of the fast moving mechs. That also meant they were out in the open now.

"Welp they're right in middle of our traps." Maylin stated looking through her binoculars at their moving targets. "Shall we show them what holy hell-fire looks like ladies?"

At once Rebecca started to work a remote control, from nearby water towers guns emerged taking aim at the mech's and they fired, loaded with the trio's erased cards, and vaporized a few of the mechs. Immediately the pilots activated their boost boxes. Projecting the familiar prided shields of the Jyumonji clan to protect not only themselves but also the soldiers who were walking on foot. That bought said soldiers enough time to make it into the buildings where the shots were coming from. The last thing that the men on the Chinese freighter heard from them were their terrified screams. Interpreting this as a sign that the men were already dead the mechs moved on, as long as their magic barriers were up, the issue of the magical projectiles were null.

"Hey muscles you're up!" Madison stated into a radio.

At once Katsuto, hidden in a alley way and dressed in civilian clothes, went to work on a trick a certain friend had taught him. Casting his own brand of barrier magic into each individual C.A.D. he built up the magical formula and sent that into the street with the mechs. No sooner had the shields broken down did the projectiles that were pelting them resume erasing the mechs from existence. This time they saw fit to retaliate, losing such valuable magical talent as the ones operating those C.A.D.s was unfortunate, but so is losing the mechs. Which is kinda what happened, when their ammunition all exploded as soon as they tried to fire them off taking off the gun arms and part of their right legs in the process. Admittedly, Katsuto thought they looked a touch intimidating when in spite of being crippled they utilized their remaining appendages to crudely stand back up and turn their attention to him, call it the decrepit zombie look. Which was mostly the reason why they were turned into gas on the wind in that instant.

"Good evening soldiers of the Great Asian Alliance." Katsuto stated stepping forward out of the shadows, prompting the fearful GAA soldiers to all point their weapons at him. "1." Katsuto stated into a microphone, prompting a combination of Air Mine and the power of the Erase Card to take the side off of one of the nearby buildings. "This is the part where you surrender. Because you know who I am. You know what I am capable of. So you also know, I did not do that! Weapons pile there." Katsuto stated pointing down the road a little bit. "Now!"

Begrudgingly the soldiers walked over and tossed the weapons into a pile, a pile that vanished from existence once they were done. Katsuto took the liberty of snatching one of their ear phone communicators and putting it on.

"Team 12 report in! What is your status?"

"Masaru Jyumonji's nephew says hello." Delivering that threat Katsuto removed the communicator as if it was made out of some manner of toxic substance and crushed it before discarding it. "It seems that there are twelve teams loose in the city."

"Twelve teams of robots? Seems a touch excessive don't yah think?" Madison asked rubbing her chin absent minded.

"Not for the four pigs trick." Maylin stated prompting her sisters to look at her like she had three heads. "Teenage punk, buys three live pigs and turns them loose in his school. All the teachers, the principal, the other students, even the bloody janitor, spends all day chasing the little squealers all over the school. After some doing they caught them, the little jerk even numbered them for em. 1, 2 and 4."

"Ex-squeeze me?" Rebecca asked distinctly recalling the mention of three pigs. "Four pigs. All that some punk kid needed to throw his school into chaos for the week because of a imaginary pig was just a red marker. And all that radio operator needed to do to make us think there are twelve teams is one syllable."

"And a fair amount of chaos. Their plan relies on us not being able to tell how many of them there really are." Madison stated scratching her chin. "Well the easiest way of doing that would be to take out the communications rig at the..." The sisters turned their attention to the direction Rebecca pointed her finger to, the community center where a radio tower was located. "Oh shit."

* * *

Outside a man who could be best summarized as the ugliest janitor ever pushed his cart forward. Spotting the radio tower he readied the missile launcher in his cart and loaded a RPG before firing it at the radio tower. Suddenly said explosive weapon disappeared in a puff of smoke, detonated prematurely from hitting something in midair. Then he heard something click behind him as a cold chill from more than just fear went down his back.

"You are interrupting my brother's presentation!" Was the last thing the hideous looking man heard before ice creep over his face.

* * *

Downstairs in the presentation hall the students were presenting their projects. More accurately, a man, who by no known means possessed the ability to perform magic, was demonstrating the fruits of First High's labors by telekinetically juggling a series of balls.

"Through the use of much of the same genetic engineering that had created the 'modern magician' we have been successful in producing a type of algae that produces the same brand of Psions and Pushions needed to perform magic." Suzune explained before she gestured to the man that was doing his best impression of a kid in a candy store. "As a consequence, even a individual like this who is unable to perform any form of magic can easily utilize this bio-technology to perform basic magic, but with practice, comes more complex and more powerful forms of magic as well. The day will come, when any individual will be capable of using magic." Suzune's speech was punctuated by the sound of clapping.

" _But not today._ " As Mayumi mentally noted.

The amount of Psion fuel needed to perform even the most basic of magic was best illustrated by the contraption on stage that looked like a car engine that was connected to three barrels that came all the way up to her waist. For this to work in any practical logical way, Four Leaves have to figure out how to mass produce those Psion batteries, so that the Psion fuel can be reduced to a practical compact package that doesn't require a car or some other manner of mobility assist device. Then there was the issue of trying to recreate unique magical formula's, though they would ultimately require Klaud's help with that. But alas that requires that they dismantle the war economy before she feels confident enough that her magic won't be used for evil.

" _So much work to do, so little time._ " Mayumi shook her head in annoyance at their catch 22 situation and decided to simply watch the presentations. Then the smoke bomb was tossed through the window.

"Ah yes..." Pointing her finger the offending canister in question, it's released contents blown out through the window by Mayumi's magical power. "I was just thinking about you."

Suddenly several armed soldiers stormed into the room through the front door. The loss of their incapacitating smoke and the element of surprise was disappointing, not unexpected. Quickly they unloaded bullets into the ceiling spitting out the usual drivel from the hostage taker's handbook. Immediately people started panicking, and then they were covered in light, and then they were gone, which caused more people to panic, and more people to disappear. Admittedly yes that was unexpected. So unexpected in fact that when Tatsuya came down on them, they didn't even notice their arms had been severed until they looked into those cold uncaring eyes framed with blood. Then faces hit the floor and it was all black from there.

"A-Chan." Mayumi stated into her phone as the person on the other end picked up.

"Mayumi what is going on!? I-Was-in the-convention-center-and-then-there-was-bullets-and..."

"Azusa, inhaler." Mayumi stated in a firm motherly voice, reminding Azusa to take her medication to keep her calm. "Secondly. I am sorry to inform you that the Great Asian Alliance is attacking the city, you and the other guests have been evacuated to an emergency shelter underneath the convention center by one of Klaud's cards." Mayumi explained as she took a moment to admire the Quiet card that was in her pocket. "Secondly. I need you to keep the rest of the audience calmed down so that they don't hurt themselves. By the time we send someone down for all of you, it will all be over.

" "Alright Mayumi, but can you please explain what is going on later?" Azusa asked sounding very scared at the moment. Hanging up Mayumi watched as Tatsuya tore apart one of the barrels.

"There you are." Tatsuya stated pulling out a black armored uniform. Tatsuya gave the group the rundown on a rather infamous and dangerous soldier of the military by the name of Special Lieutenant Ryuuya Ooguro a decorated soldier of the 101 Independent Magic Equipped Battalion given the call sign of Shiva, and the Great Black Dragon by the Great Asian Alliance, known for instantly rendering the Japanese forces invincible simply by showing up and doing his part. Then Tatsuya explained that he was Ryuuya, and now he was mobilizing to go and support the Japanese forces that had been stationed outside of the city.

"Well I can't say that I'm surprised, you wouldn't be the first child soldier our country has bred." Mayumi stated mentally adding the new revelation to the growing list of matters that were in dire need of correction as soon as possible. "But exactly how long were you planning on keeping this from us? I mean even Klaud told us about Gelos once she found out about it."

"It's classified information I can't simply casually share as I am part of the military. Klaud is not and as far as I know never will be. Now if you excuse me." Tatsuya stated as he finished fitting the combat suit over his regular clothes. "I have people to kill."

"President." Suzune stated climbing down from the stage to join Mayumi on the ground level. "The wi-fi radar you had us cobble together is up and functioning. We should have a rough idea of what our opponents are doing and where they are at."

"Excellent. That should give us valuable information about our enemy." A loud explosion sounded as the ground shook briefly. "However many of them are left that is."

* * *

Outside panic had set in the streets. The soldiers were prepared for magicians, antinite bracelets, multiform rifles capable of switching between shotgun, machine gun and sniper rifle on the fly, armor piercing rounds, carbon nanotube lined uniforms. The thing that they weren't prepared for was cars falling out of the sky.

"What's the matter you losers look like you never seen a clown before!?" Klaud had to admit she was slightly amused by the sight of grown men cursing about Gelos into their communicators while they fled in terror from The Float Card dropping things on their heads and shield bounced bullets away from her.

"Do you even need my help here?" Masaki asked his face matching the smile painted on Klaud's mask.

"Contrary to popular belief my psion count isn't unlimited and my stamina hardly holds a candle to it. So when I do run out of one or the other having someone around who can chase off the stragglers is a good idea." Klaud explained, the weary tone in her voice directly contrasting with the comical look painted onto her face mask.

"That makes since, I have noticed though that with the exception of that crazed man from a while back you haven't inflicted too many casualties." Masaki stated making a mental note of the man that she had vaporized a few minuets ago.

"I don't think that guy was, past or present tense, human, or even a magician for that matter. I'm a touch more familiar with the Chinese super soldier program than most." Klaud explained a rather serious look in her eyes. "Trust me when I say that I was doing that guy a favor."

"Oh believe me I'm not judging you or anything." Masaki held up his gun C.A.D. to help emphasize his next point. "I don't got a button for alive. But again that raises the question, why are you going easy on these guys?"

"I am Half Chinese Masaki, I don't believe that they being dragged here means that they deserve to die." Klaud stated as she noted the strategic dropping of cars had successfully corralled the enemy in a alley way. At once, a car was dropped front in first in front of Klaud, who using the power card, punch the car with sufficient force that it went streaming down the alley before grinding to a halt in front of the soldiers. At first confused, a second car being dropped from up top formed a neat cramped box for them.

"My it seems that you're in a pickle." Klaud stated, jumping down on the other side of the wired fence the soldiers found themselves stuck between with the cars. "I'd love to help you, but something is blocking my magic."

Taking Klaud's not so subtle hint the soldiers debated their options, then a groaning creak reminded them just how shoddy and heavy their cage was. Immediately they all handed over their antinite bracelets. Tossing the troublesome accessories away, Klaud loaded a card and fired, reducing the men to the size of mice sans their guns. The men's confusion only built further when Klaud used the Move Card to stuff them into a glass jar.

"For the record: I filled that jar with shrunken air too. So good news is, you can breath. Bad news is you break that jar, and you die." Delivering that threat, Klaud went on her way and reunited with Masaki. On a cargo ship at the docks, the men at the helm of a large super computer had yet to pick his jaw up off the floor, the Crimson Prince, The Dread Clown, the Black Dragon, all of them were here, and his men were being wiped out. This would not stand.

"Men, unleash the secret weapon." Various whispers went through the men at the controls of the ship, most of which were questioning if unleashing the thing that they only intended to release to help cover their escape was really a good idea.

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Hornofdesolation: I thought so.

Duked: I agree with that conclusion, one does not sneak a giant warship onto Japan's welcome mat and no one notices.


	38. Chapter 38

**Author's Note** : So my Dad's back in town as of yesterday morning. So that's good for me. Not sure about you depending on how much writing I get done in the mean time. But experience tells me it shouldn't be a issue. So, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 38: Magical Warfare: Weapons of Mass Destruction

The streets of the city rumbled. But it wasn't a earthquake. No the people of Japan knew was a earthquake was, rumbling often for short periods of time, or long sustained periods of time for something a little more severe, also, these things tended to stretch on for miles, but not in this case. No, this lasted only for a instant at least, but it kept happening, and no one outside of the city could tell what was going on. It was only after Mayumi looked out a window that she could tell what was going on. It was in that moment, that something had occurred to Mayumi. In spite of her country's reputation, born out of big budget movie productions, the country was never really attacked by giant monsters before.

"So tell me. If they keep making giant monster movies after this, will it seem insensitive?" Mari asked as she looked across the horizon of sky scrapers at what was, to summarize, a monster.

A big gorilla type creature had been grafted with cybernetic parts, and had various glowing tattoo's all over his body that looked suspiciously like engraving magic, creating a weaponize trifecta of biology, technology, and magic, the top three sciences of the modern magician, gone way too far and supersized.

"Miyuki." Mayumi stated rubbing the side of her head fending off the massive headache that was about to come. "Can you call your brother for me?"

* * *

In the mean time the newly arrived soldiers were hurling bullets and magic spells at the giant, bouncing off his hide that had been hardened by the magical tattoos. Not only that, but the monkey aimed one of it's arms at the soldiers and fired a barrage of magical spells at them. A fact which Tatsuya observed from up high.

"Tatsuya..."

"I know." Tatsuya replied, pressing down on the communicator built into his helmet.

"Before you go off and kill the Giant Cyborg Monkey Magician, can you at least tell me why there's a Giant Cyborg Monkey Magician in my town?" Mayumi asked, mixed tones of amusement and horror in voice as she talked about what sounded like a B-Movie monster tearing apart her town.

"Humans and other apes have less than one percent Genetic difference. It wouldn't be hard to give a gorilla magical powers. Certain genes which produce Estrogen limits a creature's growth cycle, remove those, and the creature could in theory never stop growing. The cybernetics could be used to control it. Of course this is all theoretical." Tatsuya stated, legitimate shock in his voice for the first time he could remember.

"Obviously. Do you know where Klaud is? It's not that I doubt your giant monkey slaying prowess Tatsuya. But it's a giant monkey." Mayumi stated, starting to sound like she was going into shock.

"This is also obvious. Call me again when you've calmed down." Tatsuya stated as he set his communicator to block Mayumi's calls.

Granted, it wasn't that he meant any harm, if anything truly important was to happen there Mari could just as easily call. But he needed to concentrate on removing the Giant Cyborg Monkey Magician without someone calling him and telling him that there was a Giant Cyborg Monkey Magician.

* * *

Klaud sat in front of a broken vending machine, and drained the contents of her third can of grape pop. her jar with her prisoners was not too far away. Granted the had endeavored to make a break for it, cooperating to run the glass jar like a hamster wheel. That plan was put to rest after Klaud stuffed them into a back pack.

"Should we go and help with the monkey?" Masaki asked looking concern. Nervously glancing over to the giant ape that was doing battle with the military.

"And do what?" Klaud asked as she once more raided the machine she broke into. "I used up all my magic doing that." Klaud explained pointing to the back pack that was housing the men inside. "It's a good thing the jar's enchanted otherwise it would really be draining."

"So they won't die of asphyxiation if they leave the jar?" Masaki asked a knowing look on his face.

"So you figured that out did you?" Klaud replied smiling bitterly.

"A magical spell that requires it's own air supply is rather useless, if not down right dangerous." Masaki replied having happily deduced the truth of the matter.

"But back to the subject at hand." Masaki stated as he gestured to the gorilla that for the time being had it's back turned to them.

"Sugar and caffeine." Klaud stated holding up the bar of chocolate that, even half eaten, looked more like it was a small skate board than anything else. "Magicians best friend." With the makeshift stimulants in her system Klaud's brain was abuzz with activity, rapidly restoring the lost psions and pushions and speeding up the process by concentrating on memories with strong emotions and thoughts attached. "Now than, call your little nerdy friend so that we can figure out how they're controlling that thing."

"Oh boy." Masaki stated as he pulled out the phone in his pocket, dread all over his features.

"What's the matter?" Klaud asked looking at Masaki confused.

"He's never been in live combat before." Masaki explained as the dial tone of his phone rang. Not one second went by before the young man on the other end picked up.

"THERE'S A GIANT KILLER GORILLA IN TOWN!" At once Masaki ended the call with all the grace of waxing one's legs, short and painful.

"He doesn't take stress very well either." Masaki stated as he put his phone away.

Simultaneously face palming and putting her mask back on, Klaud called her sisters again.

"Hey Rebecca." Klaud started the conversation off with as little enthusiasm as she could possibly muster.

"So I take it you're aware of the giant ape tearing apart the Japanese Self Defense Force?" Rebecca asked as if she was reading the newspaper.

"Several times." Klaud stated dryly, walking a few steps to dodge a tank that was hurled in her direction. "We should probably do something about that."

"Way ahead of you." Rebecca stated as Klaud heard beeping in the background.

"Rebecca, did you make a giant killer gorilla for Great Asian Alliance?" Klaud asked her dry dread replaced by pure suspicion.

"Why would she do something like that?" Masaki asked confusion on his face.

"Our Dad's the top thug in the No Head Dragons." Klaud stated as if she were stating the obvious.

"No, but I have a fairly good idea of what's going on. Unlike Japan the Chinese government didn't have access to magicians that they could mass clone. Well, magicians that they knew about anyway. So they laid the ground work using apes, like gorillas." Rebecca explained prompting Klaud to scratch her head.

"Not to state the obvious here Rebecca, but wasn't that like a hundred years ago?" Klaud asked as she counted the decades of age that the gorilla must be on her fingers.

"Yes which helps to explain his size." Rebecca stated in her newspaper tone of voice again. "How does being a hundred years old explain his size!?" Klaud asked gesturing to the giant great ape.

"Magicians were not the only line of super soldiers that the Chinese government was experimenting with. They also experimented with Estrogen." Rebecca's statement caused Klaud to draw a blank.

"Is that some kinda super soldier drug?" Klaud asked confusion obvious.

"Hardly. It's a hormone that the body starts to release at puberty, it harden's the bones and grinds the body's ability to grow naturally to a halt. Without it, then in theory there's no limit to how big you can grow." Rebecca explained mirroring Klaud's earlier obvious tone of voice.

"So to recap, that monkey is a lab monkey that the Great Asian Alliance has been continuously experimenting on for their super soldier program for the past hundred years. Fantastic but so what? Unless you got a long list of the specifications of that program we still got a giant killer gorilla we need to take apart." Masaki explained gesturing to the Gorilla whom based on the look on it's face was starting to notice their presence.

"I do. Assuming that the same technology that goes into the generators exists in that thing then that also means someone is pulling the strings. So someone else should go and pull their plugs!" Rebecca stated a dangerous tone in her voice.

"I'll cut their strings." Klaud stated as she took her communicator out of her mask and stuffed it into Masaki's ear. "You pull their plugs." Saying that, Klaud loaded several cards into her C.A.D before firing them off.

The gorilla, or more accurately it's pilot who was sharing a mental connection and thus had all of it's feelings transmitted to, was quite confused when it felt someone tapping on its shoulder. Not only was said shoulder ninety feet in the air, but he was kinda in the middle of something. So turning around you can imagine the further surprise when someone punched him in the face hard enough to send him skipping through the streets.

"Hello Magi Kong, I'm Clown-Zilla, but you can call me Gelos." Klaud stated, cracking knuckles big enough to crack vending machines like walnuts.

At once the beastly gorilla got to his feet again and charged at Klaud. True, Klaud could use one of her more offensive cards, the erase for example, but at this size that seemed... ill advised. Instead she went with her buffing cards, power and speed. The effects of which this ape was feeling first hand when Klaud unleashed a salvo of punches to his face. But the monkey had no qualms about collateral damage and saw fit to shoot everything from acid to water at her through the use of the hundreds of C.A.D.'s that might as well be the thing's hair there was so many of them. But the Lightning card would have something to say about that.

"I'm." Klaud snapped, slamming her staff down on top of the Gorilla's head, lightning accompanying the impact. "Not." A second strike, with even more sparks than the first. "Getting!" A third strike, lightning visibly arcing off the beast. "Beaten!" A fourth strike brought the ape to it's knees as the buildings around them began to show the wear of the strikes. "By a!" Fourth strike caused the beast's limbs to buckle. "MONKEY!"

Suddenly the beast stopped with it's feint and let loose on Klaud with a sharp upper cut enhanced by it's use of magic to send her skyward. Not done with her yet the beast shoved itself into the air by slamming both of it's fists into the ground getting even higher than Klaud was it got into position to deliver a crushing elbow drop. Klaud reversed the Big's effects on her and returned to normal size just in time to avoid being elbow dropped by six tons of ape. She followed this up with using the jump card to land safely, while the ape was confused about where Klaud had gone she had already readied the sword card. At once Klaud jumped and plunged the blade deep into the beast's throat, before flipping around till she was upside down and planted her feet firmly against the beast's chin and kicked. In addition to the blow to the jaw that didn't feel too different from being hit by a heavy weight boxer, there was also the fact that Klaud was just sent careening down the monkey's body like a bullet and disconnecting at the crotch, leaving a huge slash in the beast's body in the process.

"Yowza I did not need to see that." Klaud stated mentally noting that 'Monkey Balls' was now her new favorite substitute swear word. Which went to work immediately as the Gorilla picked up and crushed her in it's grip. "Sod off Yah Monkey!" Klaud slammed her hand into the great ape's arm and immediately what hair her opponent had left on his arm was set on fire. While the ape danced about in pain it's C.A.D.'s went to work trying to extinguish the flames, which is what Klaud assumed was responsible for the large burn that bisected the beast straight down the middle. "So priority one, C.A.D.'s." Klaud jerking when she tried to adjust her staff reminded her of a rather serious problem. "Actually priority one is broken ribs... then C.A.D.'s." First Klaud loaded the Time Card and healed her body. Whipping out the staff and turning it to gun form Klaud loaded the arrow card. The Massive indiscriminate spread of projectiles served her purposes well skewering many of the C.A.D.'s that covered the beast's body and rendering them non-functional. That out of the way Klaud loaded a Speed Sword combination and rushed pass the leg of the ape, severing it's foot in the process. As the beast awkwardly hopped on one foot for a few minuets Klaud replaced speed with jump, taking the ape's arm at the shoulder and throwing the already off balance beast to the ground. "To you sir!" Klaud stated aiming the business end of her gun at the beast's head. "I say good night!" A loud bang signaled the end of the beast's long life. Klaud spilled out on the ground, exhaustion from a long day's work hitting her hard as several soldiers swarmed her to help. It was then that she heard her phone ringing.

"Terrific." Getting the phone out Klaud put it on speaker and left it next to her ear. "Hey guys. I just killed the monkey, so you can stop calling me about that." Klaud stated her tiredness leaking out through her mouth.

"Good Tatsuya is just finishing up with the rest right now." Mari explained much calmer than Mayumi was.

On cue a roaming battle between the remaining soldiers and mechs of the Great Asian Alliance and a group of soldiers in black body armor passed by. If Klaud wasn't so tired, she would note that the magic coming out of the leader of the Black suited men was reviving the fallen members of his unit using his right gun, or divine right as the GAA had dubbed it, and vaporizing the enemy forces with his left, or Demon Left as it was also dubbed. Oh yes they weren't getting out of this.

* * *

In the meantime though Masaki had tracked the men pulling the Gorilla's strings to the docks where he saw a large cargo ship, the source of all of this trouble was already leaving.

"Oh Klaud's not gonna be happy about this."

* * *

That evening Tatsuya was loaded onto a jump ship and sent off for some unknown mission. On a side note that Klaud was sure wasn't related, Japan took the liberty of demonstrating their newest weapon of mass destruction to the GAA, by wiping out a third of their fleet who had gathered in the pacific ocean with a explosion that exceeded even the strongest of nuclear blasts. In the weeks to come, Klaud learned that her father had made some not so polite inquiries to the now much weaker government and was told he would soon be visiting Japan, as it's new ambassador.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: A few bumps, but nothing they couldn't handle.

Duked: They get blown up, Klaud might have some sympathy for her countrymen but the rest of Japan doesn't feel the same way.


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note** : My hand is feeling better today, for those of you who read my note from yesterday would know that I hit my hand with a hammer at work, by accident, and while nothing is broken it's not at full capacity quite yet, so my writing is still gonna be a little slow. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 39: Magical Warfare: Aftermath

Klaud sat in the back row of the auditorium as the graduating class of her freshman year walked onto the stage to receive their graduating diploma's. Klaud also took the liberty of formalizing a great many things. As a start, she was officially enrolled in Course 3, The Magical Engineering and Ancient Magic course. Something that filled her with a true feeling of dread though was the sight of her sister Rebecca standing among the teachers behind the podium. As a sort of trial run, or fair warning, Rebecca had gathered many prospective 3rd course magicians in her classroom and gave them some idea of what they were in for in her class room. That day was filled with insults, put downs and many a spectacular feat of magic. Klaud had hoped that after half a dozen of her classmates had been sent to the nurse's office crying and in need of sedatives to calm them down common sense would kick in. But alas as Klaud looked around she saw even more students wearing the arm bands that substituted the temporary replacement of their uniforms first and second course patches, First High's lilly with a gear around it.

"I tried to warn yah's, I tried to warn yah's." Klaud stated shaking her head at the pitiful state the student body would soon be reduced to.

"Even though you say that you're still taking the course." Erika stated sitting next to Klaud with a big smirk on her face.

"It does seem somewhat hypocritical of you doesn't it?" Leo asked a his face mirroring Erika as he appropriately enough sat on the other side of Klaud.

"I have to live with her guys!" Klaud stated in a defeated and exasperated tone of voice. "If I didn't join the course here then she'd just bring it home with her, and I'd end up turning into a insomniac!"

"Oh please you know she's gonna do that anyway." Erika stated waving Klaud's concerns off with her hand.

"Specially if you keep talking about her like that." Leo stated looking up at the stage and seeing Rebecca glaring at them, before turning her attention back to the graduating class.

"I am so dead." Klaud stated mortal terror in her voice.

""Aha!"" Erika and Leo stated both nodding their heads happily.

* * *

That afternoon Rebecca was sitting in the teacher's lounge a cup of golden liquid sitting in front of her.

"I thought you stopped drinking." Mayumi stated, wearing her robes for graduation as she looked at the cup with suspicion.

"I haven't had anything to drink yet." Rebecca stated in a depressed tone of voice. "Klaud's still scared of me." Rebecca stated hanging her head low.

"You only have yourself to blame." Mayumi pointed out waving her hand back and forth like a lecturer.

"I know." Rebecca stated before taking a deep breath. "She's even been trying to warn people not to take the course." Rebecca stated, a loud thump marking when her head hit the table.

"If it's had a effect then it's not the intended one." Mayumi stated looking at the latest list of prospective third course students. "Huzzah. Everyone but my sister want's to hang out with me." Rebecca spat sarcastically, waving a napkin through the air like both a flag of victory, and the white flag of defeat.

"Oh don't let it get you down. Klaud will come around eventually, she just has too..." Mayumi paused while she tried to look for the right words.

"Not being scared shit-less by the mere thought of me moving in with her?" Rebecca asked in dry knowing tone of voice.

"I give up." Mayumi sighed and giving a defeated shrug. "Maybe you need that drink after all."

"Yah probably." To this acknowledgement, Rebecca pored the contents of the glass back into the bottle before hiding it back in the fridge where she had got it before she left. "See you after spring break is over."

* * *

Rebecca got into a self driving car and was soon joined by Klaud, the air in the car becoming tense enough to cut with a knife.

"Klaud do you want me here? In this town? Working at the school?" Rebecca asked her red eyes indicated that she was just as concerned about this as Klaud was.

"Against you specifically? No." Klaud stated before taking a deep breath. "Against you sending my classmates to the nurses office so that they can calm down after you sent them off hyperventilating? Yes. I am very much against that." Klaud stated cocking a suspicious brow.

"Ugh! It's just...! How the hell are these people so gods be damned stupid!?" Rebecca shouted yanking on her hair.

"Japan only started researching magic a hundred years ago Rebecca, our family's been at it for three times that time." Klaud stated shaking her head.

"But they're doing it wrong! Their half baked... what the heck have they been teaching these people!? Who the heck thought it was a good idea to try and create something called C.A.D.s anyway!?" Rebecca snapped rubbing her temples.

"Firstly!" Klaud took out a mug filled with hot liquid from the car's built in coffee machine. "Drink some decaf and calm down!" Rebecca took the offering and drained the paper cup. "Secondly, don't yell at people, don't insult them, don't curse and swear every time you found out that someone did something stupid. You're gonna be a teacher soon, teach them!" Rebecca could only hang her head low, before taking a deep breath.

"Sorry. Oi so this is what they mean by butterflies in your stomach." Rebecca explained holding her hand over mouth during a burp. "Ugh. I feel nauseous."

"Come on. Madison's suppose to be making a spa in town this week, maybe we can do something to settle your stomach."

* * *

The two sisters made a detour from home to a mountain shrine where Madison was building a day spa. It was while inside while getting changed that the two encounter some old associates.

"Mayumi, Miyuki, Azusa what are you guys doing here?" Klaud asked looking at the girls as they finished getting dressed.

"Changing of the guard." Mayumi stated prompting Klaud to look at her funny.

"A-chan's the new student body president?" Klaud repeated getting into the hot tub with the others.

"Well she is the most qualified for the position. Ignoring her magic that was tailored made for calming people down, she has natural leadership skills." Mayumi stated patting the younger girl who looked extremely nervous on the head.

"Please don't do that nee-san, it's demeaning." Azusa stated trying to shrink down.

"What do you mean A-Chan? You love it when I pat you on your head." Mayumi stated, Azusa's pathetic defiance only encouraging her to continue.

"Haven't I seen you before?" Rebecca ask slinking into place alongside Klaud as she glowered down at Azusa, the younger girl shrinking down on the spot.

"She's one of the people you sent off the hospital wing ready to piss their pants." Klaud stated prompting Rebecca to gain a look of bitter recognition.

"Sorry about that, I've been having a bad week." Rebecca stated resting her cheek on her fist.

"Because of the Invasion by the GAA?" Mayumi asked prompting Rebecca to nod.

"Half of the crap they stuffed into that monkey was stuff I made. It's a funny thing realizing you manufactured the gun pointed at your head." Rebecca stated a defeated tone in her voice. "And a terrifying one when you realize that it's pointed at your own little sister."

"What are they doing with that great big ape anyway?" Klaud asked scratching her head.

"Well, because it's dead they can't rely on the cybernetics to move it out of the streets. Instead a team of men, mostly volunteers, are hacking off pieces of it and moving it out of the city with trucks. The trucks are going to nearest laboratory so that the people there can figure out exactly what those mad men did with that poor monkey." Mayumi stated rubbing her chin with her hand.

"More important than that is what Japan has been up to lately." Rebecca stated a sour look on her face that could sink a freighter. "One third, of The GAA's naval forces, wiped out in a instant, you two don't know anything about that do you?" Mayumi simply shook her head, Miyuki on the other hand seemed a little nervous.

"But you do don't you? Interesting little bag of tricks your brother has. Regrowth, Decomposition, Elemental sight. Magic I would imagine would be quite handy for splitting an atom. Do you know why they called the weapons dropped on Hiroshima during the mid-twentieth century were called atom bombs?" Miyuki gulped as Rebecca continued with her explanation. "The unique material of the bomb's cores made them uniquely qualified for splitting atoms, the resulting release of energy created a catastrophic explosion strong enough to level a city."

"Big sis, are you suggesting that Tatsuya was the one who sunk the GAA's fleet?" Klaud asked looking at her sister suspiciously.

"Suggesting? No. I know he sunk the GAA's fleet." Rebecca stated looking at Miyuki suspiciously.

"Okay. So..." Those present looked at Azusa, who was staring in shock at the people having a conversation about things that she strongly suspected that she should not know about. To this end Rebecca reached out and squeezed down on Azusa's shoulder.

"Now that we've taken care of that perhaps we should focus on the subject of your brother." Rebecca stated glaring at Miyuki.

"Alright, so how much trouble are we in?" Miyuki asked nervously.

"I'll just take A-Chan somewhere she can lay down." Mayumi stated dragging her subordinate off to the locker room.

"It would be hypocritical of us to scold you for having the power of Erase and Time." Rebecca stated holding up her two card's in question before the disappeared to parts unknown. "But your choice on how to use them, is questionable at best. Part of what makes that questionable is that thanks to your brother, we have no idea of what was on that ship."

"So it could have been a boat full of generators, or those robots, or simply a bunch of psychopath's who wanted nothing less then to burn this country down and take it over." Klaud asked her face scrunched up in a mess of mixed emotions. "Excuse me. I think I need to go and sit down somewhere." Klaud explained as she got up out of the water.

"Uh before your go Klaud." The ancient magician in question turned around and cocked a brow at Miyuki. "I was thinking, you've already brought us to see your home, so I was wondering if you wanted to come over during the break to see ours."

"Oi Rebecca, how much longer is it gonna be till dad gets here?" Klaud asked looking at her sister suspiciously.

"Let's see here. Couple days I think." Rebecca stated looking up pondering. "Course it would be easy to... divert his course to visit our long lost relatives in the modern community."

"Your Dad? As in the crime lord your Dad?" Miyuki asked looking quite justifiably concerned.

"Actually it's our dad the Senator now. He's had a discussion with the upper management of the GAA after your brother sunk their fleet." Rebecca stated tapping her fingers in annoyance.

"His new position requires that he lives in Japan. Visiting an influential member of the ten master clans could be thought of as a business meeting." Rebecca stated as a amused look spread across her features. "I only bring this up because it would seem imprudent to take a vacation first day on the job."

"Alright. I guess it's settled then." Klaud stated rubbing her hands together in anticipation. "I could use a little bit of vacation."

* * *

Tatsuya was working in a lab at the school examining the data he gleamed from the docks after the battle between the Americans and the GAA. True much time had passed since the battle, and he would not be able to derive any more information from examining the scene of the crime as it where. However, while the chaos was happening between preparing for the battle and the battle itself he had not had the time to visit the former base of operations of the GAA. Instead, utilizing what he had learned of molecular copying and pasting he gave some goggles the power of elemental sight and sent some competent people here to take some readings and notes of the area, which he was reviewing now.

"Baryon Particles." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin with his hand.

"'Baryon particles?'" Shizuka asked standing next to Tatsuya with two glasses full of lemonade.

"A type of subatomic particles composed of neutrons." Tatsuya explained taking a deep swig of the lemonade. "They're a lot heavier then most others too. Without them there would be a lot more people floating off into space."

"Okay, so what do they have to do with what happened at the docks?" Shizuka asked looking at the data. "Did someone load a gun full of heavy and shoot it at someone?"

"You're not wrong, breaking down a solid item and restructuring them into baryon particles before hurling them at high speeds is a highly effective armor piercing magic." Tatsuya stated something akin to excitement in his voice.

"You sound happy about this, you think you can recreate it?" Shizuka asked looking at the computer confused.

"I'm familiar with how Katsuto's shield magic works and several of Klaud's cards. That doesn't mean I can reproduce any of those magics." Tatsuya explained continuing to look at the data with fascination. "And yet this peaks your interest." Shizuka stated gesturing to the machine.

"That it does. It is my theory that..." Suddenly Tatsuya was interrupted by a call and so picked up and answered his phone. "Hello? Oh Miyuki good to hear from you... No I have no immediate plans... I see. It sounds like a lovely idea. I'll have my bags packed by tonight." Hanging up the phone, Tatsuya noticed that Shizuka looked pretty down cast. "I wouldn't worry, I'll be back after I've finished a little bit of family business. But first, there's work to be done here." With that Tatsuya went to work getting First High's Militia outfitted and trained for the next mess to pop out of the wood work.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Well what is a Fan Fic without a surprise here or there?


	40. Chapter 40

**Author's Note** : Hand's almost better. Also there seems to be a glitch plaguing me right now where my account doesn't acknowledge when I post or update new chapters, the chapter is still there, and you can read it, the dates don't change, which I'm assuming also means that you aren't informed of the updates either. So if you're reading this, just check back in the afternoon on Sunday from now on, it'll probably be posted by then. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 40: International Magical Family Relations

Once again, Klaud and Rebecca were flying by Griffin over the Japanese countryside, both of them riding by speed card enhanced Inari, Rebecca wrapping her arms around the sleeping Klaud. But following behind them was Rebecca's own Griffin Cyber was Tatsuya and Miyuki. The two of them enjoyed Traveling by Griffin so much the last time that they simply couldn't pass up the chance to do it again. Following even further behind them were two angels, the first was Sapphire, Klaud's angelic familiar, and the second was Gowther, Rebecca's angel familiar, carrying large suitcases full of necessities from their respective living spaces. Gowther looked pretty straight laced, his robe while similar to Saphire's was also quite white and plain in comparison, more like a lab technician's uniform which it should be supposed was appropriate for Rebecca's tastes. In direct contrast to the straight laced outfit however, the angel had a mop of bright pink hair that one would have absolutely no trouble picking out from a crowd. More important than the mounts and the ones carrying the luggage was where the group was going. A ancient Japanese looking temple over seeing a Mountainside village that was not recorded on any map. This place was home to the Yotsuba clan, listed as the ominous number four in Japan's ten great magician clans, and the host clan to Tatsuya and Miyuki's family. The two griffins landed on a pad normally meant for Helicopters and were followed shortly there after by the angels.

"Good day to you, members of the Kinomoto Clan Klaud Reed Kinomoto and Rebecca Kinomoto." A elderly butler stated bowing his head to the first of the two griffins passengers.

"Good day to you as well, Tadanori Hayama I presume?" Rebecca stated adjusting the position of the sleeping Klaud.

"Indeed." Inari moved aside to allow Cyber, who was carrying Miyuki and Tatsuya, to land on the pad as well. "Good day to you, Mistress Miyuki, Master Tatsuya." In the entirety of the Yotsuba clan, barring very few exceptions, Tatsuya was treated with a bottomless pit of disrespect. But Tadanori was different, the long standing head butler to the Yotsuba family, he not only served the Shiba siblings parents, but also their parents before them. His immeasurable respect for the family extended event to Tatsuya the most disrespected man in the entire family.

"Good day to you to Tadanori." Miyuki stated taking a bow as she hopped off of the mechanical Griffin.

"Good Day Tadanori." Tatsuya stated giving a respective bow.

"If y'all done being nice. Klaud's gonna be asleep for a while yet, show this fella to her room and he'll take her there." Rebecca stated tapping Inari on his head. "Think of the young lady over there as her maid." Rebecca stated indicating Sapphire who just landed with her other Angel companion. Indeed when Sapphire and her partner returned to normal she was wearing a maid's uniform, conversely though the pink haired one was wearing a lab coat and glasses. "But Pinky and Cyber are with me. We're suppose to start setting up for dad's arrival."

"Of course madam, I will see to the preparations myself." Once Rebecca climbed off of Inari both he and Sapphire walked over to Tadanori awaiting escort. "It still amazes me. I had of course read the reports about the two of you written by Master Tatsuya, but seeing truly is believe. A real Griffin and Angel."

"Tatsuya wrote reports about us?" Inari asked cocking a suspicious brow at the butler.

"Well as I understand it that guy is suppose to be the little cute one's body guard, so it's only natural that he would write reports about people who are friends with her and her servants." Sapphire stated carrying the luggage that belonged to both Rebecca and Klaud.

"That makes sense I suppose. But tell me, how does he know about them?"

"Obviously, as the head butler he is privy to all the goings on of this fine establishment."

"Hmm. That makes sense I suppose."

The pair finishing their conversation they promptly followed Tadanori off to parts unknown.

"Should we follow them?" Pinky asked adjusting his glasses.

"No, Tatsuya here is going to show us to the local lab." Rebecca stated gesturing to the Lab. "Once there, we're gonna be discussing how much rope I'm going to give him to hang himself."

"That does not sound like it will bode well." Pinky stated adjusting his glasses again.

* * *

Once the sisters were comfortable they alongside the members of the Yotsuba household began gathering around the table and prepared to eat lunch.

"It is so nice to hear our family's cousins in the ancient Magic community are reaching out to us." Maya stated swirling around a glass of wine.

"You've known us for years Maya, cut the bull would you?" Rebecca stated accusingly pointing her meat chunk skewered on her fork.

"Yes, but you went to such extreme lengths to isolate yourselves that you live inside of a complex dimensional distortion taking up approximately one inch of real world space, if our estimates are right anyway." Maya explained as she cut into her own meal.

"As if we would ever be so predictable." Rebecca stated as she popped the meat chunk she just carved off of the steak into her mouth.

"See? That's my point, you people are so secretive it's almost impossible to get a hold of you!" Maya stated sounding more than a little bit frustrated.

"If our mother is secretive Maya." Rebecca put her cutlery down and folded her hands. "It's only because she brutally, horribly lost members of her family that she was very close to and she is not willing to give up any more." A deep silence echoed throughout the room. Maya leaned back into her chair and steeple her hands lost deep in thought.

"Keeping our families safe is something that your mother and I have in common." Maya began tapping her fingers together, creases in her fore head forming as if she was recalling an extremely unpleasant memory. "When I was a child, something happened to me. Dahan kidnapped me and did... unpleasant things. Thirty members of my family, my parents, cousins, uncles, aunts and servants alongside over one thousand of Dahan's citizens, military and cabinet all died in the process of getting me back."

"I know, I was there." Rebecca replied resting her cheek on her fist.

"I'm aware. But that wasn't the point I was making, when they got me back, I was so badly traumatized, that my sister had to give me the same treatment she would later give to her son over there." Maya stated gesturing to her nephew who was sitting across from Rebecca. "Because of this, we became quite close."

"I guess being a siscon runs in the family." Klaud stated giggling prompting a glare from Tatsuya and a blush from Miyuki.

"Speaking of which, I don't see Miyu around here. Is she feeling well?" Rebecca asked looking around the table.

"My sister's physical health was quite poor ever since what happened to us all those years ago. She suffers from severe mental strain and chemical imbalance that makes using magic... a costly gamble." Maya stated her eyes wandering around the room.

"How costly are we talking about here?" Klaud asked legitimate concern all over her features.

"As far as I know the last time that she used magic she deleted my emotions. It's a disturbing sight, watching someone's brains leak out through their tear ducts." Tatsuya stated a tiny, just a tiny, hint of fear in his eyes. "First time I ever used Regrowth. It was not pleasant."

"Lemme make a guess about the stupid method you people used to give Tatsuya his regrowth power. Since you stuck that power directly into his brain that means he has to review every moment of what you want to reverse up to the moment you want to return that object to. In that case, you would get the feeling of your brains melting squeezed into a single instant, but I bet it left a lasting impression." Rebecca explained swirling her drink around in her glass.

It was at that point in time that the familiar lab coated form of Pinky walked up behind Rebecca with his hands behind his back.

"Mistress, your father is here." Pinky stated prompting Klaud to perk right up. "He has requested to see both you and your sister at once." Klaud however was already on her way to the heliport where she had arrived earlier.

"She was never that excited to see me." Rebecca stated a clearly annoyed tone in her voice.

"Try being nice to her once in a while mistress." Pinky stated his voice carrying just a touch of snark.

Outside of the temple, the helicopter pad was being used for it's intended purpose, landing for helicopters. A Chinese man in his early twenties with amber eyes stepped out from the helicopter wearing a green suit. A small smirk appeared on the man's face as he saw the form of his youngest daughter run up to him.

"Dad!" The man Klaud called Dad picked Klaud up and spun her around a few times.

"Senator Syaoran Li." The Man's moment of revelry was interrupted by Maya's along Tatsuya and Miyuki's sudden appearance on the off ramp. "It is pleasure to meet you."

"If only the same could be said about you Miss Yotsuba." Syaoran stated putting his daughter down and adjusting his cuff-links.

"I am hoping that our two families will be able to co-operate to much greater heights in the future." Maya stated, not quite sure she heard what Sayaoran just told her.

"I know where this conversation is going and I will stop you before it gets any farther." Syaoran stated a extremely unpleasant look on his features as he glanced over Tatsuya's form. "You might be related to my wife, by virtue of your ancestor tearing apart her brother and making a few weapons out of him but that is it. We are not family, you are a lab rat and a attack dog. You obediently line your ass up to be injected with strange chemicals when ordered and snarl and bite when you're told. You are a slave, and my family will not share that fate. If you wish to become a part of my family, stop being one."

"With all do respect senator Li." The pleasant look on Maya's face had not left, but something had changed in it since the conversation started, a dangerous glint in Maya's eyes. "I don't know how it is done in your country, but I do not think I am a slave, and neither do I think that my family is one either."

"True, perhaps slave is not the right word. Serf, yes that sounds about right, you own property, but do you have rights to your own? And even if you are the exception, as you if anyone would be." Syaoran stated gesturing to the area showing the wealth of the family. "Can you say the same for the others of your kind?"

Maya could not argue against this fact, the life of a magician outside of the ten families was indeed like a slave. The only thing that she seemed able to do was frown harder.

"Miyuki, Tatsuya can you take Klaud somewhere? It seems that her father and I have some things to discuss." Taking Maya's not too subtle clues Tatsuya and Miyuki led Klaud away and took her to a Japanese styled garden. "Sorry about that, I had forgotten he was like that." Klaud stated her legs swinging over the edge of a bridge.

* * *

"It sounds like he has some issues with our family." Tatsuya stated standing next to Klaud and overlooking the garden.

"I assume that my mom told you about her brother Tori, that one time she knocked me out and I woke up in my room." Klaud stated a sad look on her features. "She never wanted me to know, but I found out on my own."

"That must have been very disturbing for you Klaud." Miyuki stated patting her friend supportively on her back.

"When they were kids, My dad was pretty close to my mother's family. You could say he had a bit of a man crush on her brother in fact." Klaud stated snorting a little bit at the embarrassing fact. "He was back in Hong Kong when the fighting started. He didn't join the army, but he did evacuate a good number of citizens, when he was attacked by the first gen magicians produced by the Fourth Laboratory, and had to cut them down."

"Do you mean...?" Miyuki asked a fearful premonition in her features.

"Thanks to the Fourth Laboratory that has been integrated into your family, my father had to kill a man he considered a friend and a brother over and over again. And as if this wound wasn't deep enough already..." Klaud turned around to look up to Tatsuya who looked back at her with his signature poker face. "His ghost has dropped by to remind him of his sin." A haunting wind rushed through the garden, shaking branches and blowing leaves as if called forth by the hand of God.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.

Duked: Technically she has three, the first two are her biological parents of whom she is a binary clone of allowed to developed naturally, the other is Sayaoran who raised her after the deaths of the first two.


	41. Chapter 41

**Author's Note** : Okay so the glitch that hassled me last week is fixed, and my chapters are showing their proper update dates again, so for any of you reading this who did not read last week's chapter already, go back and do that. As for those of you who did read that chapter. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 41: Foreign Relationships: Stalemate

After lunch Tatsuya and Miyuki were inside of the room shared by their aunt and mother. They had taken their mother's food to her and she was now eating, albeit slowly. Despite the circumstances this was still quite difficult for her. Yes Tatsuya was her son, the son that she essentially turned into a living corpse when she destroyed all of his emotions. She imagine that she very much looked like she saw a ghost.

"So... uh... how are you two doing?" Miyu asked looking quite nervous.

"We worked on the Thesis competition and we've created a type of psion based fuel source for use in C.A.D.'s, and we believe we can further increase the productivity of the fuel using information I've gleamed from Klaud's Cards. Using cards for water and plant production, I believe that we can dramatically increase the production of the Psion Fuel." Tatsuya explained sounding more than a little bit excited, but only a little.

"That sounds..." Miyu admittedly was confused with Tatsuya sounding anything close to excited, but a quick glance to Miyuki and her enthusiastically nodding up and down head confirmed that yes this was good. "Good... How is Klaud doing anyway?"

"She's with her father and sister right now. They're having a... discussion right now. I don't think Klaud's happy about how he was talking to aunt Maya earlier." Miyuki stated as she awkwardly scratched the side of her cheek.

* * *

"You were invited into their home." Klaud stated pacing back and forth in front of a bed where her father Sayaoran Li had been seated. "You were treated with nothing but kindness." It was then that Klaud bent over to look at her seated father in the eye with her arms crossed. "And the first words out of your mouth was a insult degrading not only them, but every single member of their family who has ever lived! Included among them are two of my best friends!" Sayaoran cocked a brow at Rebecca.

"Don't look to me for sympathy, you brought this down on your own head father." Rebecca stated as she took another swig of her apple juice.

"Right. Klaud. The thing you have to understand is..."

"What I understand, is that a hundred years ago, a group of war mongering psychopath's abducted your best friend, chopped him into pieces, used him as raw material to produce a army of super soldiers, who then teamed up with your wife to wipe out the very same people responsible for bringing them into the world! People they had considered to be their parents! And you, senator, have just insulted their every living relative, including your own Family! Apologize to Maya...!" Proving that she meant what she was talking about, Klaud slipped her key off of her neck and had it take the form of her staff before loading a card. "Or this is the last time you will hear from me for a long time!" After a flash of light the effects of the Voice card had taken hold and Klaud was effectively muted.

* * *

Rebecca had to admit, the old man was being more stubborn about this then she had anticipated. It was a whole day and he still hadn't apologized to Maya. Maya evidently was taking it much better then Klaud was, opening up various contacts and channels for the old man. Admittedly both Klaud's and the source of her inherited stubborn streak was getting a little more than annoying. Time to stage an intervention. Klaud opened the door leading to her and Rebecca's room and entered to discover not only her sister inside but also Miyuki and Tatsuya as well. At once Klaud whipped out a tablet, a gift from Maya after Klaud had muted herself, and quickly scribbled down a question.

'Is this about me not talking to Dad?'

"Yes." Tatsuya, resident voice of reason and spokes person for this relationship destroying intervention support group, stated simply standing up to address Klaud. "Klaud, do you have any ulterior motives to this line of inquiry that you are pursuing?" Smart, he knew that she would just shut them down if they attempted to convince her, so instead he decided to give her the chance to convince them.

'He needs to apologize.'

"That's it? That's your big speech? Kid debates are a little more thought out than this." Rebecca stated massaging her temples to fend off the inevitable headache.

However Klaud was not yet done.

'I didn't mean to Maya, I meant to the people he killed.' Klaud explained a sad look on her face as she continued. 'He put himself through the deeply traumatic and painful experience of having to kill his best friend over, and over, and over again. He has been holding onto that pain for close to a hundred years and now he's letting it destroy his relationship with the descendants of that best friend. HE needs to apologize!'

Everyone let out a deep sigh, why does family have to be so gods be damned complicated.

* * *

Meanwhile from the confines of a office, ice chilled amber liquid filled the shot glass to the side of Maya as she looked at a screen depicting Klaud's 'speech' to her associates, the little worm planted in that tablet proved to be quite beneficial to her, able to receive both direct feed of the room and knowledge of everything that Klaud was writing down.

"Clever girl you've got there." Maya stated downing the contents of the glass.

"I'm aware, she always was annoyingly perceptive." Sayaoran stated his hands folded together as he leveled a glare at Maya. "And I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about you spying on my daughter."

"And yet you have yet to object. Look dear, I don't like you anymore than you like me. Can we at least agree to hate one another in silence? Can we at least be that mature?" Maya asked sounding very tired.

"It's hard to imagine that you are the most respected magician in Japan, you and your nephew is just three points shy of one of Rebecca's Generators." Sayaoran stated sizing Maya up and down, it was disturbing how much she looked like Sakura.

"You're not wrong, much of the same process that was used to delete our emotions was used to remake the minds of your Generators. But our core values, memories and personalities remain intact." Maya stated putting her glass down after taking a drink from it.

"I find that hard to think possible without any emotions. Memories lose value, personality becomes stripped, values lose meaning." Sayaoran stated as he pored himself a drink as well.

"Personality is shaped by Values, Values are shaped by Memory. And we didn't lose all of our emotions, there is for example our deep love for our siblings Miyuki in Tatsuya's case and Miyu, Miyuki and Tatsuya in mine. Having the traumatic events of my past removed doesn't keep me from developing new emotions. For example I can feel angry when a stranger from another country waltz into my home and starts insulting my family." Point Maya, that was most certainly rage that was bubbling deep inside of those violet eyes earlier. "I can also develop affection for those other than my sister. After all Miyuki and Tatsuya weren't born until after Miyu had erased my emotions." And it was that same deep bubbling rage that showed her deep seated affection for those two as well. "And as for my values, they remain intact: I love my family, just like you do." Maya slammed her glass into the table hard enough for the golden liquid inside to splash outward and spill onto the table. "And I will be damned before I let anyone harm one single hair on their heads."

"So then..." Sayaoran let out a devious smirk as he rested his head on his folded hands. "Truce?"

* * *

Shortly after giving her speech to her associates, Klaud's tablet had pinged with a message: 'mission accomplished.' Relieved Klaud finally deactivated the voice card.

"Ha that's a relief." Klaud stated her voice returned to her.

"So your father and our aunt are getting along now?" Miyuki asked smiling seeing that Klaud had gotten her voice back.

"Well they've taken the first step anyway. So how are the public taking the existence of Tatsuya's psion fuel?" Klaud asked relaxing into a chair with a glass and a bottle of Rebecca's apple juice in hand.

"The Rozen clan contacted me a few hours ago, they're very interested in combining our existing research on psion based energy resources." Tatsuya explained as he sat down in front of a desk top computer and set out to work on one of his projects.

"Have you told them how easily we can mass produce that stuff yet?" Klaud asked holding up the wood and water cards.

"I have explained to them my theory on using magic to accelerate the plant growth." In other words yes, but he was leaving Klaud's cards out of it. "The military has also expressed interest, but I've already explained that in it's current form it's too impractical to carry into battle, and the risk that enemy forces could get their hands on it if they do. Until we crack the secrets of storing magical power and formula artificially, weaponizing the fuel is impossible and dangerous." Meaning until Klaud decided to give Tatsuya the secrets he needed to make it work the government would be getting no say in the matter. "Of course there's only so many other projects I can stall with before they put me back on this one."

"Which leads to the current situation, what are you working on?" Klaud asked getting up from the chair and leaving the bottle of apple juice at Tasuya's side.

"I'm trying to reverse engineer a bit of combat magic that was used by the Americans against the Great Asian Alliance. At the moment I'm calling it Baryon Lance." Tatsuya stated indicating the magical spear like projectile depicted on the screen.

"Baryon particles. So it makes things heavier?" Klaud asked sounding like she wasn't entirely sure.

"A good guess, but no. More accurately it takes heavy, loads it into a gun, and shoots it at people in a high velocity armor piercing attack. But more to the point how do you know anything about Baryon particles?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud suspiciously.

"Rebecca explained them to me while lecturing me about my cards." Klaud stated thumbing Rebecca who was idly sitting in the chair behind Klaud. "Apparently The Float card strips stuff of Baryon particles to make them lighter."

"Hmm. Yes I do recall that the Float used baryon particle manipulation when I was studying it." Tatsuya stated while he scratched his chin. "Indeed whereas the Fly Card relies on the large magical wings that it creates to grant flight, the Float card merely makes things so light that they levitate off the ground when used. That said both were still extremely useful in the development of the flight C.A.D. I created, Float uses up less magic than Fly, but you can't steer it, but if the subject is lighter then the wings no longer has to be as big or strong."

"Glad I could help." Klaud stated crossing her arms in satisfaction. "Still, it's too impractical for personal flight for most people don't have enough magical power."

"With the use of psion fuel though it's possible to create a type of magic vehicle though." Tatsuya stated crossing his legs together as he scratched his chin. "Well I'll put it on a list of projects I can distract the military with for the time being. The longer the list of excuses I can concoct by not working on their weapons program the better."

"You say that but you're still trying to reverse engineer a ace in the hole type magic from another country." Klaud said that her attention still on 'Baryon Lance' depicted on the screen.

"That's because it's for personal use, not military." Tatsuya explained a confident look on his face. "As a start, the principle of Baryon Lance requires the use of both Decomposition and Regeneration. I'm only one of twelve people in the world who can you either of those magics."

"I get it. So even if you explain to the government how this works they don't got anyone else who can use it!" Klaud exclaimed banging her fist into her hand.

"Correct. But at the same time it also raises a terrifying fact." Tatsuya stated as he returned to scratching his chin with his hand.

"What is it?" Klaud asked now looking concerned.

"Didn't you hear him a minuet ago?" Rebecca asked a sour and displeased look on her features. "'Baryon Lance requires the use of Decomposition and Regeneration.' What he's saying, is that the bleeding Americans got the same kind of monster he is on their side!"

* * *

Outside of a familiar apartment complex, a young girl of Caucasian features including blonde hair and blue eyes stood, large suitcases at either side of her.

"Angelina Shields." The blonde in question looked over to see Mayumi and Azusa who appeared to have sneaked up on her.

"I'm suppose to be meeting First High's class president here?" The blonde asked cocking a brow.

"Well I was First High's student body president." Mayumi explained crouching down and moving behind Azusa, pushing the younger girl who looked very much like she was being locked in a cage with a lion forward. "Unfortunately she still hasn't gotten use to the position yet, So I'm here to shove her out of the nest as it were."

"Am I to assume that this... piece of rubble is going to be my home for the next year?" Angelina stated as she observed the apartment building with a feeling akin to disgust.

"Well the city stopped caring about this part of town for a while. It was bought up by the family of one of our students here, maybe you heard of her, Klaud Reed?" To Mayumi's question Angelina shot her a interested note.

"The monster that dominated the Nine School's Competition with a terrifying number of different magics? Yah. Her I heard of." Angelina stated as she picked up one of the bags. "Do you know which apartment is mine?"

Simply put, Angelina was a exchange student, trading places with Shizuka while she went to America to study abroad, she realized that she couldn't afford to live at her place. Thus Mayumi, who stayed at this apartment during the invasion by the Great Asian Alliance, understood that it had a surplus of housing available, and after asking for Klaud's permission, had it renovated to accommodate any more foreign students going to First High in the coming year. That suited Angelina just fine, having set up a secure connection, she gave the silhouette of her superior a salute.

"Sirius Black, reporting for Duty sir!"


	42. Chapter 42

**Author's Note** : Another week, Another chapter done. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 42: Foreign Relations: International Magicians

While visiting the Yotsuba family mountain estate and while there being visited by the man who raised Klaud was fun while it lasted, the Shiba and Kinomoto siblings had to be getting back to school now, less they be late for the first day of the new year. Thus saying their fair wells the two pairs of siblings flew back to civilization on the backs of Griffins. When the two sets of siblings landed outside of Klaud's apartment building they were greeted by the sight of Mayumi and the apartment's new tenant Angie Kudou Shields.

"Oh you must be the American exchange student Angie right?" Klaud stated holding out her hand to shake, which Angie Accepted.

"Pleasure." Letting go of Klaud's hand Angie walked around to view Inari from his front. "And this fellow must be Inari."

"Afternoon." Inari replied bluntly, before he transformed back into his smaller form.

"Aren't there suppose to be some angels following you around?" Angie asked looking around the area.

"Up here!" At once Angie looked up and made way as two angels, who were continuing to carry everyone's stuff, touched down on the ground. "I'm Sapphire."

"And I'm Gowther. Pleasure to meet you." The Pink haired angel stated as he adjusted his glasses.

"You should know that as your landlord during your stay here the top two floors of the complex are off limits." Rebecca stated narrowing a glare at Angie.

"That's fine, I've taken the third from the top." Angie stated smirking knowingly.

"Breakfast is served at seven thirty sharp. Any allergies we should know about?" Rebecca stated, observing every detail that she could make out about the girl.

"None. Although if it matters I have been looking forward to getting some Japanese cuisine in me." Angie stated rubbing her belly expectantly.

"Fair enough. Klaud we should go unpack." Saying that, the miniaturized griffins and angels helped the two sorcerers carry the bags into the building.

"Hey did you guys..." Klaud asked as she pointed back to the outside.

"Yep. Don't talk about it till we get to the school." Rebecca stated her pace not missing a beat as she walked.

* * *

Over the next couple days the sisters settled back in and started going to first high again.

"Uh Klaud. What are you doing?" By which Miyuki, the school's new vice student council president, asked.

"With all the crazy paranoid shit happening to us lately do you wanna take the chance that First high is the target of yet another military incursion?" Klaud replied a bug sweeper in hand as she crawled along the floor.

"Blanc, No Head Dragons, the Great Asian Alliance." Miyuki stated casually listing off several rather dangerous individuals. "Yeah that does sound like a moderately good idea."

"Speaking of which." Closing and locking the door as she came in Rebecca sat down in front of the group, carrying a large boom box. "You guys know how to read lips right?" Miyuki and Azusa looked at each other concerned before turning back to Rebecca and nodding their heads. At once Rebecca turned on the boom box before cranking the volume until no one could hear.

"So I take it by the length's you two are taking that we're being spied on again?" Tatsuya stated taking the opportunity to put in some ear plugs and giving some to Azusa, Miyuki, Klaud and Rebecca.

"Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when someone from the USNA rampaged down at the docks blowing holes into the Great Asian Alliance?" Klaud asked prompting Miyuki to nod and Azusa to look between them terrified. "We think that the one responsible was Angie."

"Just because she's American? Isn't that being a little racist Klaud?" Miyuki asked in a scolding tone. "No it was Erase screaming at me giving me the same danger signals as they gave Tatsuya." Klaud stated a hurt and disappointed look on her features.

"I see I see that makes sense." Tatsuya stated before realization dawned on him. "Wait are they still afraid of me?"

"It died down after I acknowledged you as a threat, it stopped altogether when they got use to you." Klaud stated prompting Tatsuya to relax a little bit.

"So what do we intend to do about our foreign exchange student with a nasty habit of blowing holes into things with disturbing regularity?" Tatsuya asked keeping entirely straight faced.

Azusa on the other hand looked utterly mortified, then she screamed loud enough that the group could hear her over both the boom box and the ear plugs, then she bolted out the door.

"Uh oh." Klaud stated turning off the music before she and Tatsuya chased after Azusa.

"Our fearless leader ladies." Rebecca commented in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"What on Earth is going on in here!?" Angie stated, lured in by the sounds of music and screaming student council presidents, then she saw the boom box and bug sweeper Klaud left on the table and a highly unamused look crossed her features.

"Ah Angie good to see you again! There's some basic magical assessment tests that we'd like you to complete for us if you'd follow me." Miyuki stated walking up to Angie and not too gently guiding her into another direction.

* * *

So after Angie completed a battery of tests she was put into a very small room with Klaud, perusing through a folder, and a table between them.

"I personally believe that transparency is a important part of a working relationship. So let's get this out of the way." Tossing the folder onto the table Klaud revealed pictures of a number of ruined magical mechs. "I know that you blow things up for the USNA for a living. Don't try to deny it we compared the psions from your tests to the ones we scraped off of the docks."

"Shouldn't I be having this conversation with your student council president?" Angie asked narrowing a glare at Klaud with one brow cocked.

"Sadly our new student council president has to be prodded out of a tree by my minion at the moment. You get me for the time being." Klaud stated her tone of voice one that someone might use to comment upon the weather.

"Fair enough. So long as we're being transparent I know that you were the clown rampaging through the city taking out Great Asian Alliance thugs God of Laughter." Angie stated, a nervous tick in her eyes as she admitted that she knew Klaud was one of the most dangerous bingo book targets in the world and most likely her surveillance target prompting Klaud a blank look from Klaud.

"No really? The ancient magician that put on a big show at the Nine School's competition in every imaginable variation of circus clown and court jester outfit possible is Gelos." Klaud stated making an annoyed eye-roll.

"I have one question. Why clowns?" Angie asked legitimate confusion on her features.

"Childhood trauma." Klaud replied prompting Angie to nod her head.

"Wait like Batman?" Angie asked shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't know I don't watch American television." Klaud stated rolling her eyes before turning serious again. "My turn. Why are you still in the country? The UNSA operation we busted we think had been there for a couple weeks already, and the whole student exchange program came along after that."

"Wait that was you who attacked us? I thought that was the Great Asian Alliance!?" Angie stated confusion and a bit of anger on her features.

"No no we just bullied a woman into helping us make them think that you stole the thing that they wanted." Klaud stated casually shrugging her shoulders.

"Just like how you tricked us into thinking that they were the ones who had the Oopart." Angie let out a groan realizing that she had been played, and masterfully she might add. "Nice work on the whole enemy of my enemy thing by the way."

"Thank you. But no amount of flattery will point this conversation away from what I'm here for." Klaud stated smiling briefly before her eyes narrowed into a glare. "Because the only thing I know about you is that you turn things into piles of molten slag for a living." Once again Klaud directed her hand over a picture on the table depicting what was a magic mech from the Great Asian Alliance. "And I can promise you, that if that's what you are in my country to do, you and I will have a very long conversation that you are not going to enjoy discussing what manner of hole that I will shove you into!"

"Well as long as I can get a say in it." Angie stated letting out a gulp having some idea of what manner hole this girl can shove people into. "You're not wrong. But there are two reasons for why I was given this task." Firstly, Angie held out one finger. "I was already here, providing support in the effort to steal the Oopart." And then Angie held out a second finger. "I also knew the people who are involved in what is happening."

"You're being deliberately vague about this yah know." Klaud stated examining the dirt under her nails.

"I'd need to talk with me superiors before I bring you in. For now the only thing that I can say is that I'm trying to eliminate a mutual threat to both of our nations." Angie stated very much aware of the fact that she didn't have the means of stopping Klaud from dragging her off somewhere.

"That's what I was afraid of." At once Klaud attached a pair of antinite bracelets to her prisoner before locking them in.

The first act of securing was followed by a second, in the form of the Move Card taking all of the C.A.D.s off of Angie before dumping them into a laundry shoot on the other side of the room.

"That's it? I was expecting something... more?" To this question a door opened behind Angie revealing none other than Leo, donning the same surgical scars around his cheek bones that could be recognized from the intel reports on the Great Asian Alliance's generators, and smiling down devilishly at Angie. "Touche."

* * *

"I DON'T WANNA!"

In the mean time though, far more childish problems were happening as Azusa clung to a tree doing her best impression of a cat who found herself stuck there with her arms and legs wrapped around a tree branch. Tatsuya on the other hand was doing his best impression of a concerned owner trying to prod his pet out of the tree before she hurt herself.

"How's she doing?" Kirihara, the School's new head of the Sports club committee, asked carrying a ladder he had just finished procuring.

"I DON'T WANNA FIGHT PEOPLE FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND GET BLOWN UP!"

"Not very well." Tatsuya stated accepting the ladder. Setting up the ladder Tatsuya climbed until he was face to face with the terrified young girl, thinking that maybe he should get a crow bar, or maybe a saw. "Azusa, you need to calm down." Tatsuya stated doing his best impression of supportive and helpful.

"I DON'T WANNA BE BRAIN WASHED AND SHOT AT!" Azusa on the other hand only continued to shout about how badly she didn't want to be put into a position that came with a target to hang on her back.

"Azusa, if you come out of that tree in the next five minuets I'll give you my spare silver horn C.A.D." Tatsuya stated, sounding much like a parent trying to bribe a child with a toy.

"Hmm..." Azusa made a pathetic whine before she removed her legs wrapped around the tree branch and was lowered to the ground with the help of Tatsuya and Kirihara. "I know you don't want to become the next student council president Azusa." Tatsuya stated, understanding clear in his voice.

"I can't fight like Mayumi." Azusa sniffed demonstrating the beginnings of a runny nose from excessive sadness piling up. "I'm not strong like Katsuho." Kirihara handed Azusa a bundle of tissues he had been keeping in his pocket and immediately she blew her nose on one. "I'm not tough like Mari."

"This self deprecation has gone on long enough." Tatsuya stated in a firm tone of voice that sounded almost like a scolding. "Azusa, contrary to what you might have been led to believe watching Mayumi, being a leader isn't about being able to recklessly charge forward killing everything in sight. It's about being able to carefully observe a situation and plan accordingly in order to keep as many people on their feet as possible. I know it doesn't sound easy, but Mayumi wouldn't have left you in charge if she didn't believe in you."

"I would feel better if I knew how to fight." Azusa stated still sounding extremely sad about the whole entire situation.

"Perhaps this will help." Tatsuya stated holding out one of his Silver Horns. "Of course we'll have to have it calibrated to you." Azusa's face turned a bright beat red, the image of the half naked Kirihara during his calibration before he left for the Nine School's competition flashing through her mind. "Of course if that's not enough to convince you, perhaps this will." Tatsuya explained pulling out the C.A.D. from his pocket which resembled a joystick.

"The new Harpy Model Controlled Flight C.A.D!" Azusa exclaimed, shock plastered all over her features.

"I take that means that you're taking the job then?" Tatsuya asked a knowing look on his face. To which Azusa excitedly nodded.


	43. Chapter 43

**Author's Note** : No Reviews, disappointing, no matter. Time to keep moving forward.

* * *

Chapter 43: Super Natural Creatures: Vampire

In the streets of the city at night, A woman wearing a rubber dress and heels that were far too large to be comfortable. She spotted a car slow down and stop in front of her.

"Hey big boy. Wanna go for a ride?"

The door next to the woman unlocked, allowing her inside. Immediately red was splattered against the window and the woman's body was tossed out of the vehicle before it sped off.

* * *

Klaud was in her apartment complex, though not in her apartment, pacing back and forth in front of her prisoner Angie Shields, who was the actual current tenant in the apartment. Angie fidgeted with her Antinite cuffs while she waited to get a call from her superior. Angie had the sinking suspicion that these cuffs weren't designed to be removed. Finally the flat screen situated in front of Angie finally came alive.

"Angela Kudou Shields reporting for duty sir." Angie stated straightening up and giving the man on the screen a salute.

Even without any visible eyes it was easy to tell that the man's line of sight had shifted over to Klaud.

"Gelos. So you've been compromised."

"They sampled my psions from the incident at the docks and compared it to when I took their exams." Angie explained sighing at being found out so easily.

"That and I'm just naturally paranoid. So if you're done trying to cover ass, would somebody please tell me what the hell you stupid Americans unleashed in my town!?" Klaud snapped angrily glaring at the black figure on the screen.

"Are you aware of the Okinawa incident I presume?"

"You mean you stupid Americans and the Chinese getting into a fight on my home and native land over a glorified paper weight which resulted in a full scale invasion by the Chinese? Yes I am painfully aware of that!" Klaud growled in annoyance.

"In the aftermath, a third of the GAA fleet was sunk by a nuclear level explosion, we believe it to be the work of one of Japan's strategic class magicians. Once we figured out what happened it led us to wonder 'if magic can take apart, can it put it back together.'"

"So in other words you people tried to make something out of magic. Cute. Cute. So what did you create?" Klaud asked looking at the man with great annoyance.

"For lack of a better term..." The Man let out deep sigh that conveyed just how difficult he found what he was about to say. "Vampires."

"Vampires. Am I being punked?" Klaud asked seriously glaring at the man.

"What came out of our supercollider was a type of parasitic organism composed of magical particles. We called it a Paranormal parasite. Next thing we knew it had leap into the body of one of the magicians standing guard, and then it attacked the others and ripped their throats out. We thought they were dead until they got back up again. We didn't realize that the parasite reproduces using the psions found in blood, and then the new parasite takes over the body from which that blood came from."

"Cute. So aside from the fact that a bunch of special forces losers are possessed by a deranged blood sucking science project gone wrong is there anything else we should know about these guys?" Klaud asked getting more annoyed by the second.

"They don't require the use of C.A.D.s to cast spells, and from what we can tell they seem to be telepathically linked together."

"Great. What are they doing here?" Klaud asked glaring at the shadow suspiciously.

"They're after me." Angie stated looking up at Klaud. "We were on the same team before everything went sideways. I'm the missing piece to a complete set."

"Great. So what are we gonna do about these guys?" Klaud asked looking at the shadow in the screen.

"Here's the pictures of the ones who we know are infected." The Shadow stated as four gruff looking men's photo's appeared on the screen. "Check all the victims of attacks resulting in large blood loss in the past two weeks for any abnormalities."

"Two weeks...!?" Klaud repeated flabbergasted. "You knew that these monsters were in my home land for two weeks and you didn't even bother to tell anyone!?" At once the sound of breaking glass accompanied the destruction of the screen. "And as for you!" Klaud aimed her staff at her prisoner, and at once the antinite binding her disappeared. "First you're going to help me track down your little abominations, then you're going to get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Country! Do I make myself clear!?" Klaud shouted into Angie's face who could only nod in response.

* * *

"Vampires! Am I being punked?" Kirihara asked first thing in the morning at the meeting of the school's new three pillars, which it should be noted consisted of himself, Azusa who was already passed out on the floor, and Klaud who brought this matter to their attention, as well as various interested and reliable parties.

"That's what I said. But no." Klaud swiped her hand over the little tablet and brought up images of what looked suspiciously like various young magicians with their throats ripped out. "Over the past couple of weeks a serial killer people are calling Mack the Knife as been tearing apart magicians in Okinawa. This being the latest victim." A profile of a young police woman appeared. "Officer Takashi Inoue, Magician with the OPD's undercover task force. Throat ripped out like the other ones." It was then that Klaud finally noticed Azusa on the floor. "Can somebody get some water in here?" Then Klaud remember the C.A.D. in pendant form around her neck. "Never mind." Transforming the C.A.D. into gun form Klaud hit Azusa with a blast of cold water startling her awake.

"I DON'T WANNA BE A VAMPIRE!" Azusa cried teary eyed before she curled up into fetal position.

"Aside from the whole curling up and wishing the world would go back to normal thing I have to agree with her on this one." Kirihara stated tearing his eyes away from their fetal leader. "Do we even know of a way to reverse this madness."

"This specifically? No." Tatsuya stated a cloth going over his Silver Horn as he shined it to perfection. "However, regrowth is another matter altogether."

"Right. One of those Magics you were using during the invasion of Okinawa. The one you used to heal those soldiers." Kirihara stated not entirely sure about how the magic works.

"Without going into too many details. So long as the parasite hasn't bonded itself to a host for anymore than twenty four hours, I can remove it." Tatsuya explained putting one weapon away and beginning work on another.

"Fantastic. No offense Tatsuya but if one of those things takes over my brain I'm coming after you first." Kirihara stated pointing at Tatsuya.

"That is a very likely scenario. By chance are there any living victims of these Parasites around? Because the only way that we're gonna be able to figure out how to get these things out of people is with one to examine." Tatsuya stated looking at the screen suspiciously. "These are the ones we know are infected." The pictures of the men that the Shadow had shown Klaud appeared on the screen. "A survivor of a Mac the Knife attack reported someone fitting this description as being responsible for the attack." Klaud explained bringing up a police sketch resembling one of the men. "That person is going to be released from the hospital within a few days so we should probably be hurrying up now."

* * *

With Rebecca driving the members of First High's militia loaded themselves onto a van and headed for the hospital.

"Vampires! Are you punking us?" Leo asked looking Kirihara strait in the eye.

"That's what Klaud said. Genuine, magical parasite imbued vampires." Kirihara stated letting out a sigh.

"Great! I'll start sharpening wooden stakes!" Erika stated half joking and half terrified.

"These aren't boogiemen from a five hundred year old horror novel Erika! They aren't gonna dry up and shrivel away in the sun light!" Klaud stated sounding just as scared as the others. "Oh god my life has been transformed into a Saturday Morning cartoon show!"

"Complete with the colorful costumes." Kirihara noted sizing up Klaud's clown costume. "Your sister really is color blind isn't she?"

"I know I know!" Klaud wailed sinking her face into her hands. "Why do you hate me universe why!?"

"If you're done Bellyaching we're here." Rebecca stated driving up into and parking the vehicle into the parking lot. "Klaud and Tatsuya stay put, everyone else with me." At once the various students emptied out of the vehicle and approached the main entrance to the hospital.

"Where we going?" Kirihara asked as various doctors shot them strange looks as they passed by.

"Room B-12." Rebecca stated punching a button on the elevator as the students pored in the group went up to the second floor. "This way." The room they were looking for was not too far away.

Unfortunately what they were looking for inside of that room was no long there.

"Great. Now where could they have gone." Rebecca muttered to herself.

"Oi!" Kirihara ran over and dragged a nurse to the door. "Where's the person that was being kept in this room!?"

"The Morgue." The somewhat confused nurse explained simply. "She died."

"She died?" Rebecca repeated a puzzled look on her face. "How?"

"Her wound had been healed up, I was coming in to check on her bandages when her heart stopped beating, we attempted to resuscitate her but it didn't work, hence, she died." The nurse explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Morgue. Now!" Rebecca stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

Rebecca found it fortunate that the victim was such a strong believer in medical science, to the point that she had donated her corpse to science. That said the nurse did look like she was going to object to Rebecca picking up a bone saw and cutting the poor woman's head open.

"Nasty!" Kirihara watched enough CSI to know what a brain was suppose to look like. A solid wrinkled mass of flesh firmly held into a neat package, not a slimy dripping mess that couldn't even stay together long enough for the cut off top of the skull to be removed. "Well I think we know why her heart stopped beating." Kirihara stated noting how the nurse fainted at the sight of what was happening.

"You here now!" Rebecca snapped accusingly pointing at Angie.

"Oh my..." Angie mumbled her brain having not quite yet caught up with her eyes on what she was seeing.

"By any chance can those Parasites jump from host to host?" Rebecca asked looking at Angie seriously.

"It's not like they stuck around for us to do a in depth analysis on them!" Angie replied seriously, before the sounds coming off of her stomach provided reason for her to seek the nearby trash can.

"So it jumped ship, the question here is to whom and why?" Rebecca commented scratching her chin.

"Well lets start narrowing down the suspects. As far as we know it would have needed a new host body right after turning the old one into goo so that means that we're looking for one of the nursing staff, presumably who worked on the same floor as our patient was being kept on." Leo stated holding his chin in his hand.

It took the group a few moments to realize their most obvious suspect before she had jumped onto Leo's back trying to bite him.

"Lady! I'm not dinner!" Leo shouted struggling with the woman who was trying to infect him.

She was suddenly thrown off of him however and slammed into the wall behind him. The culprit was Angie using a throwing type magic. The Nurse snarled as she prepared to leap back into the fray only to notice a gun taller than anyone in the room aimed directly at her face.

"So we confirmed that removing the parasite results in death right?" Angie asked a little bit of bile at the corner of her lips and a spiteful smirk on her features.

"Yes it's safe to say that." Rebecca replied as the other students worked to secure their prisoner on either end of the hallway. "Now would you kindly dispose of this pest? We have a schedule to keep after all."

At once the gun fire, releasing neither light, heat or a projectile but a wave of pure concussive force hit the woman square in her upper torso with sufficient force that she had been reduced to a bloodied mist mixed in with the crushed stone and pavement as the weapon tore a hole into the outside world, making both Klaud and Tatsuya jump slightly at the sudden explosion tearing apart the pavement


	44. Chapter 44

**Author's Note** : Finally some Reviews, Maybe I should right more funny stuff into these chapters? Eh. Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 44: Special Forces Training: Counter Tactics

After the untimely Death of the Nurse by Heavy Metal Burst as Angela called it, Tatsuya and Klaud were called down. Firstly, Klaud's time card was used on both of the corpses, first the corpse on the table which managed to resurrect the original parasite infested host with the parasite inside, no need to let Angela know what Tatsuya could do after all. Klaud was already a surveillance target, and her family was known and feared in the appropriate circles. Better if she was the only one they had reason to fear. The second was on the Nurse, who with full memory of being possessed was quite grateful to be free of the parasite and eager to provide whatever information she could, after they confirmed that the little malevolent mass of psions was gone from her body using a MRI. The Parasite in question on the other hand was soon extracted from it's original host and safely contained inside of a vat of psion fuel, where it would be staying until such a time that it would be dealt with one way or another. The government had been notified, and not wishing to risk the ranks of the Parasites growing by giving them more magicians to recruit, they had opted to send in a team of normal human special forces.

"Abandoned buildings." Rebecca stated pinning a map depicting the abandoned part of the city to a bulletin board. "The rat's nests of our modern world. No city in the world is without them, especially these days with sharp the drop in the population and all that. Unmapped, unknown, and best of all no one gives a honest to goodness damn about them. Perfect place for a pack of foreign rats to hide. According to our former vampire the buildings we are targeting, are ones unstable enough to be condemned, but strong enough to live in provided nothing reckless happens. Ms. Shields, if you will." Rebecca sat down prompting Angela to step up to the board and pin photo's of four men to the board.

"Alexander Wu." Firstly was a Chinese man, thirties, short black hair. "Highly proficient Pyrokinetic. Proficient practitioner in explosion, in which he raises the target's body temperature until they burst into flame. Not a pleasant way to go." The second, Black, Mohawk cut short, late twenties. "Henry Bell. Hijacker, his mind is unique in tune with the Wi Fi signals around him up to several miles. Every camera his eyes, every microphone a ear, every computer file a memory." Which was part of the reason why they were doing a paper debrief, and why Tatsuya had went to build a Faraday cage around the school's servers followed by encrypting all of their files, vampire or no, he wasn't getting through that. "Edward Granger." Third, white burly man, early forties, large set of claw marks from a close encounter of the hairy kind on his face. "Fauna Kinetic, fortunately cities aren't known for having large dangerous animals lurking about, rather what we need to worry about is a hoard of disease carrying rodents or decent sized birds of prey dropping stuff on our heads. Like bombs for example. Dogs can be the worst we can expect from them, though he's done interesting things with raccoons in the past." Terrifying, simply terrifying. Flame throwers would be the most effective target for this one, but that would put them at risk for the pyrokinetic, couple that with the walking cannon here and these stars were turning out to be a bunch of really terrifying people. "Jack Smith." Finally, black man bald head, barely visible tattoo along his neck line. "Geokinetic, specializes in the fabrication of golems. Also really effective at barriers."

Five people in total including Angela, Three high level offensive types, one at close range, one at mid range, and one sneak attack specialist, a high tier surveillance type, and a high level defensive type, all trained in close quarters combat. Five points in a star, all of them interconnected and covering each other's weaknesses, an appropriate name for a special forces unit. Bowing her head to the assembled group Angela returned to being seated.

"So anyone have any idea how we're gonna pwn these losers?" Klaud asked looking around the room.

"According to our former Vampire, their base is mobile, they live in a new emptied building every night, no shortage of them around these parts, but as for food and water." Kirihara explained tacking a photo of a large abandoned stadium to the wall. "They need to grow the food themselves, and without doing any major demolition this here is the place to do it."

"Course after taking out their plant at the hospital they'll need to pack up and move somewhere else." Angela stated resting her cheek on her hand. "Can't afford a intel leak leading us to them."

"Which it has." Rebecca pointed out observing the dirt underneath her nails.

"So I have a question, if the police are sending in the Japanese Self Defense Force to go get these guys why are we even having this briefing?" Erika asked raising her hand into the air.

"Because they are super magicians, telepathically linked together, with special forces training, with military grade hardware and most importantly they know they're coming. Even if they take all the precautions, they'd still be walking into one hell of a shit storm." Rebecca snapped glaring at the others.

"Speaking of..." Tatsuya stated rolling in a flat screen TV into the room, back from the school's servers. "It seems that the government has opted to ignore our recommendations on dealing with their surveillance expert. On the bright side, we can get a first hand look at what we're dealing with."

"Fantastic." Angela stated looking at the camera's that doted the room, security, computers, and one of the TV, plus any possible passerby's whose stray camera's could see inside the room. "I need a minuet before you get that set up." Shaking a can of spray paint Angela went around the room blinding the various camera's, and as a added layer of precaution she lowered the blinds on the window and tacked several layers of paper painted black over the door.

"Paranoid much?" Kirihara asked as he put a bag of popcorn into the student Council room's microwave.

"It's only paranoia if no one's out to get you." Angela stated as she took a bottle of brown hair dye to the sink. "Set that thing up and Henry will trace our position in a heart beat."

"The Servers have been encoded, shielded, and cut off from the rest of the school. The signal is being bounced around the country, and you've already blocked all means of electronic surveillance into this room." Tatsuya listed off as he finished plugging in the TV.

"You say that like a school full of potential hosts isn't a attractive target for them, on top of which if and more likely when this fails they'll have antinite to attack us with, and they're more likely to see the need for more numbers with two separate governments trying to kill them." Angela stated wrapping her head in a towel as the fast acting hair dye settled in. "So if and again more likely when they get here, I'd like for them to not recognize me immediately."

"You aren't planning on jumping ship on us now are you?" Kirihara asked hand moving towards his weapon.

"If I wasn't planning on staying and fighting, I'd have left already. Those were my men and putting them out of their misery is my job." Angela stated fitting pink contact lenses over her blue eyes, creating a light amethyst shade. "This way at least I'll look just like another Japanese student. If need be I'll throw off the contacts and reveal my identity. I can distract them, or I can lure them into a trap."

"No need to waste a asset." Tatsuya stated as he finished tampering with the TV. "Everything's set up."

On the screen five camera's for five men entered the abandoned stadium, potatoes and corn was growing in soil where once baseball reign supreme. So this was their little farm, though Klaud wondered how they managed to get the crops up and going in just two weeks.

"Our government has been experimenting with super fast growing crops, in case soldiers get stranded somewhere cut off from supply lines." Angela explained to Klaud's questioning glare, more focus on the lit candle hanging above her head that was creating a small but noticeable scar on her cheek. "STARs are required to carry some around in our pockets. For just such case of emergency." A mechanical groan echoed through the screen as a large dome unfolded above the stadium, cutting the men off from daylight. As per protocol the men put on their night vision goggles so that they could see better in the dark.

"Don't do that!" Erika stated groaning into her hand. "Why would they even do that!? That must be the oldest trick in the book!?" As Erika predicted all of the JSDF soldiers activated their night vision gear. Hearing something the men saw a dog carrying a bundle of something up to them.

"Stop!"

At once the dog stopped, dropping the bag several feet away from them. One of the men went to investigate what was in the bag, road flares.

"And there goes the neighborhood." Erika stated in a annoyed tone of voice, resting her chin on her hand.

At once the detonator inside of the bag went off, igniting all of the road flares at the same time turning the area that was pitch black into bright light and blinding the various soldiers wearing night vision goggles. Then the golems came, puppets made of stone fists already swinging hitting the JSDF soldiers hard, Antinite made short work of them, but as it turned out they were just the distraction. The soldiers were too busy with the walking piles of rubble coming at them to notice the bombs coming down from above, grenades and IED's being carried by pidgeons and dropped on their heads. Many of the men didn't make it. Then the sprinklers went off, but they weren't sprinkling water, many of the soldiers noted the familiar taste of alcohol, distilled from Potatoes, otherwise known as Snobs. The fire was the last thing that they saw before they burnt to death.

"They knew they were coming." Kirihara stated looking over to Angela's direction, he had to admit that he didn't recognize her under all of that disguise she was wearing.

"If you run someone chases you, if you hide someone looks for you, why wouldn't they be prepared?" Angela asked cocking a suspicious brow. "I told you people we should have just gone and get them, now the only thing this pointless exercise has done is cost the lives of a great many good people and giving those monsters valuable resources."

"Hmm. Antinite, and psion based lifeforms." Tatsuya pondered while he scratched his chin.

"What's the matter Tatsuya? Something cooking in that brain of yours?" Kirihara asked looking at the resident genius suspiciously.

"Antinite isn't so much anti-magic as it is anti-organized magic, which is the reason why my gram demolition is so effective when we were going up against Blanc and their Antinite weapons." Tatsuya stated tapping his fingers together in a manner similar to the mad scientists in the old movies. "The parasites on the other hand are very organized clusters of magical power."

"So what you're saying here, is that if we can get our hands on some Antinite, we can beat these guys?" Kirihara asked a smirk starting to form on his lips.

"Great, so all we have to do is get our hands on the ultra rare strictly regulated anti magic material that civilians aren't allowed any where near." Angela snapped shrugging her shoulders in the air. "Great, no problem."

"Actually..." Kirihara started to explain one finger in the air.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Duked: The old rule of three states that comedy comes in three's.


	45. Chapter 45

**Author's Note** : No Reviews, shame, but no matter. On with the story! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 45: Military Tactics: Siege Assault

Klaud used the the Earthy Card to create a large stone barrier around the school. While Shield was better at making barriers it also drained more magical power. But even this parasites would be hard pressed to find something that could break through ten feet of solid stone. The members of the student Militia were getting various C.A.D.s ready to attack with whatever they could find. The majority of the student body were being funneled into underground bunkers, and Klaud already had the Maze card ready to be deployed if the stars members got into the school. Inari and Sapphire were circling above, looking for any suspicious movements that could be the doing of the Stars team. Tatsuya on the other hand had locked himself in his lab and was putting the finishing touches on a new magic spell to fight against the members of the Stars team. No one knew what it was suppose to do, but Tatsuya had already fashioned a couple of ten inch long tubes of Tungstun into something resembling silencers for his Silver Horns. Erika on the other hand was using her connections with the police to monitor for any crimes that might be related to trying to breach the school.

"Yo Boss Lady!"

Klaud pulled up her cell phone to talk to the one on the other end.

"Hey Erika, it's Klaud. What's going on?" The Ancient Magician asked as she scanned the city from her home made sniper tower.

"I don't know if it's important, but a moving truck was stolen a couple of hours ago."

"And we're just finding out about this now?" The magician glared at her phone suspiciously.

"They were good. The alarms were disabled, the locks picked, no one knew anything had happened till the first guy got into work a few minuets ago."

"Stinks like a professional to me." It was then that Klaud saw a truck lining up with the street the school was on a couple blocks away. "Hey Erika, quick question, what was the name of that moving company?"

"U-Move why?"

"Ah Cripes!" Klaud lined up her C.A.D in gun form and aimed it at the truck as it took off a like a rocket plowing through any obstacle on a non stop collision course for the school. Klaud fired the erase card at the truck, causing it to disintegrate into smokey electrons, protons and Neutrons, but it wasn't enough. The smoke like mass hit the wall Klaud erected with a loud smash. "What the heck!?" Checking the smoke Klaud saw that it was composed mostly of Baryon particles, that truck she vaporized must have been loaded with tungsten or some other kind of heavy metal. "Dammit!" Shouting that Klaud plunged her staff into the ground again. This time, Klaud summoned a wind storm around the school, but wind would not be enough. Someone added fire to mix, no doubt the work of the pyrokinetic. So now Klaud was left with a choice, keep the new barrier up, most likely roast the school and the entire neighborhood in the process, or drop it and leave the school defenseless. "I hate these guys!" Muttering that Klaud dropped her wind barrier.

With the wind and fire storm out of the way Klaud was treated to the sight of four men standing before her, being accompanied by armies of rats, dogs, birds, raccoons and golems.

"You have something that belongs to us." Alexander stated monotonously. "You will release those you have taken prisoner at once."

"Yeah, no. Not happening." To Klaud's defiance Inari and Sapphire joined in.

The Angel literally rained down hell from above in the form of a storm of crystal shards. Once the battlefield was saturated with the crystal shards Inari fired a solar beam into one of the crystals, causing it to split off and hit the other crystals, further splitting off until the ground surrounding the outside of the school was a laser trip wire network. "That should buy us a min..." Sapphire was suddenly tackled out of the sky by Alexander who had propelled himself into the air like a rocket and tackled Sapphire to the ground. Inari had to draw his attention away from maintaining the laser light grid to fend off a group of kamikaze birds carrying bombs and flying at him. Distracted by the birds Inari didn't even notice the laser sights lining up to take out one of his wings, sending him spiraling into the ground.

"Great. Hey Guys we're getting our butts handed to us out here!" Klaud shouted into her phone.

Indeed, aside from Inari and Sapphire the other students were meeting the enemy forces with mixed results. Between Blanc, The No Head Dragons, and the recent invasion by the Great Asian Alliance the group has come into contact with a great deal of antinite, antinite that Kirihara has been secretly stockpiling. Antinite that the students were using to great effect to dismantle the golems. But unfortunately it was was not effective against animals, but it was very effective against Inari and Sapphire, leaving one part of the school vulnerable to the stone men, and another to the snarling often disease infested animals. On the latter front, Kirihara was doing rather well, the duel wielding of swords together with the use of the _cutting edge_ C.A.D's programmed by Tatsuya proving to be highly effective against the dogs. Miyuki's use of ice magic was making the birds fall from the sky like rocks and bounce like frozen turkey's before exploding in midair, and her use of fire magic was proving equally effective at incinerating the rats. On the other hand Sapphire was in the middle of fighting against the fire breather Alexander, slashing with make shift crystal swords and blocking the blasts of fire from the acrobatic fire breather with crystal shields.

"What's the matter fire cracker!? Not feeling up for a real fight?" Sapphire asked smirking knowingly.

"No I just understand that the moment I kill you your associates will blast me with those Antinite bracelets, which given the symbiotic organism composed of psions that my brain chemistry is currently relying on, would prove to be most fatal for me." Pointer fingers forward Alexander started shooting balls of fire at the angelic woman, balls that were slashed out of the air by Sapphire. Several students tried to come at him from behind, but unfortunately for them Alexander choose that opportunity to put down a literal fire wall in front of them. Said wall of fire also had the side effect of trapping Sapphire in the little area, because unlike Alexander she simply couldn't flip over the wall thanks to the sniper guns that had already grounded Inari.

"Great, Inari how are yah doing over there!?" Sapphire shouted while she went to work trying to extinguish the fire.

On the subject of whom Inari was doing his best to fend off his foes. But between the golems, the rats, the dogs, and the guns that had already taken one of his wings it wasn't going too well.

"I could use some help!" Inari snapped ducking away from another sniper shot that instead took the upper portion of the head off of one of the Golems. Inari had tried several times to try and pinpoint the locations of the guns so that he could take them out, but he was having no luck. Inari had already crossed over the same spot several times already but he wasn't being shot at even though he had been before. The only conclusion he could reach was that the guns were moving around. "The bullet spitters are flying, can we do something about them?" Inari shouted as a bullet grazed him in the shoulder.

"And if they're flying..." Sapphire smiled as she looked up into the air, spotting the several mile or so high drones that were picking on her associate. "Then that means that I can knock em to the ground!" Waving her hands around Sapphire produced a tornado that knocked all the drones clean out of the sky. Now that Inari wasn't being harassed by bullets any more he could rejoin the main battle, cauterizing the wounds dealt to him with fire magic he hopped onto the wall and fired solar beams at the rodent attackers, incinerating them in the process. "Anyone seen where those vampire thugs ran off to?"

To Sapphire's question Klaud looked around and saw that indeed the parasite infested men were no where to be seen, not even Alexander who was just there a few moments ago.

"Terrific."

* * *

Henry examined the door, he tried to unlock it several times but he couldn't get it open. Eventually Henry realized that the door was bolted shut from the inside, as in with screws, as in they screwed the door shut from the inside.

" _Henry what is the hold up over there?_ "

" _They sealed the door. Hacking isn't going to cut it. But explosives is another story._ "

" _I can destroy the door. But I will need a distraction._ "

" _I can do distraction._ "

* * *

Suddenly the stone wall outside of the school began to shake apart, the resulting chunks of stone floating off into the air above the school. Antinite wouldn't do them any good here, the only thing that would accomplish is dropping the growing mass of stony debris on top of the school.

"Good afternoon Miss Reed."

"I assume by the fact that you're not calling me by my first name and that I don't recognize your voice that you're one of the Stars members which based on the fact that you've hacked into our coms that you're the technopath, Henry was it?" Klaud idly examined the dirt underneath her fingernails.

"Impressive. I wonder how you came to such conclusions?"

"Your superiors in America have been very eager to find you. So much so that they've gotten a bunch of High school students and their science teacher to hunt you little menaces to society down like the mangy dogs you are!" Klaud snapped before recalling the giant mass of stone above their heads. "Speaking of, if you don't take those rocks out from above our heads I'm gonna be really testy."

"And if you don't tell whoever it is that you've got inside of the science lab to remove the screws you put into the door then my associate will drop them."

"Cute threat. But no. No one's inside of the science lab as you yourself will probably learn when you inevitably get through that door." Klaud aimed at he giant mass of stone and fired at it, soon it was trapped inside of the familiar pink bubble of the float card, ready to selectively rain down hell at Klaud's beck and call. "Thanks for letting me know you're inside of the school though. That saves me lots of trouble." Tapping her staff on the ground, the Maze card activated. Immediately, the insides of the school were twisted and contorted, stretched and shrunk, until all that was left over was nothing more than a big, huge, knotted mess for the members of Stars to get lost inside of. "Have fun finding a way out that hell."

* * *

As far as they knew, Alexander and Henry were the only ones trapped inside of the school when it suddenly decided to turn into a MC Escher painting. Aside from Alexander the other's abilities were best used at a distance. Henry on the other hand needed to enter the actual building since the whole thing was air gaped and the really important places had a giant faraday cage erected around them. Not that they were interested in the school servers, they had something far more important to get. Something that they would never be able to get to now that the entire school was flipped on it's head.

" _What kind of magic is this? Is it some kind of illusion?_ "

" _Doubtful. Illusions cannot alter space._ "

" _How do you know it's space and not your perception of space that's being altered?_ "

" _Illusions cannot also affect our equipment. I'm echo-mapping the area as we speak._ "

" _This makes no sense! What kind of magic is capable of something like this?_ "

"Ex-squeeze me!" Henry looked down the hall, which it should be noted looked like a attraction from some type of water park with a serious disregard for health and safety codes, and saw a young red headed student approaching him. "Don't mind me, I'm just capturing you." Saying that, Erika held up the lightning card that then sparked as it went into the school's electronics and fried Henry. "One down!" Erika stated happily as her would be opponent fell to the ground knocked clean out. "Three to go!"


	46. Chapter 46

**Author's Note** : Yes! Reviews! Well one review but not the point. I believe I've said this before but I like reviews! And I don't think that it takes that long to go down to the review box and tell me I am doing a good job! So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 46: Military Tactics: Search and Capture

They had lost contact with Henry, not good, and Alex was still trying to figure out the maze they were trapped in. Logically if it was a illusion, then it would only be affecting the people inside, instead the sonar sweep that Henry conducted of the area before he passed out confirmed that it really had been turned into a maze of some kind. What in the bleeding name of all that was right in this world had they been doing to that poor school. Edward and Jack had set up their temporary base of operations inside of a building across the street from the school, between their golems and beasts they should be adequately protected enough to figure out their next move.

"Knock Knock." The start of the joke ended with a hand going through two inches of solid oak and opening the door from the inside. The owner of that fist was revealed to be none other than Leo, whom it must be noted had a snarling dog attempting to bite through his jugular, and failing.

"I would say 'Who's there' but I suspect we wouldn't get a serious answer." Edward stated whipping out a shot gun and pelting Leo with buck shot, buck shot that might as well have been spit balls for all the good it had done.

"Punching!" Leo stated as it the Joke had continued unabated, and appropriately enough using a similar motion to remove the offending Canine from his person.

"I'm not gonna dignify that with a response." Jack stated, rocks floating around him as he hurled them at Leo.

Leo on the other hand smashed the rocks out of the air with his bare hands and started moving forward to the pair.

"You guys are no fun!" Slapping a familiar card onto his shoulder, Leo's entire body tensed up as he was surrounded by a pink aura. "Aw well, time to shove a monkey wrench your butts!" Slamming his hands into the floor below him, Leo tore the bulk of the room from the rest of the building and pushed it out onto the street with a loud crash.

"Attention Stars members!" The two parasite infected men looked up and saw Angie and Klaud aiming their respective C.A.D.s at them. "Surrender or be destroyed!"

"I'll go with option C!" Jack punched the ground with one hand, causing the ground to shake as the street suddenly folded up and attempted to crush Klaud and Angie.

"Same Old Jack." Angie muttered, pulling the trigger on her weapon, and obliterating one part of the street.

"Hello Angie. We almost didn't recognize you." Jack stated observing as the street fell apart.

"So much for keeping a low profile." Angie muttered taking aim at the two men. "By the way, you choose the destroy option."

At this Jack assembled several chunks of earth into a shield and blocked the blast from Angie with it, before he and Edward took off through the air on a floating chunk of wall.

"Were they always that powerful?" Leo asked as he picked up a sizable chunk of building and chucked it at the two escaping vampires, knocking them out of the air in the process.

"No. It must be a side effect of the Parasites." Angie stated aiming at her fallen former teammates with her weapon.

"Another thing, we need at least one of these guys alive, so that my sister can pick them apart and find a weakness." Klaud explained forcibly lowering the weapon to the ground.

"Didn't Erika already take down one in the school?" Angie asked raising a questioning brow at Klaud.

"Yes but that is that, and this is this. That guy already had his brain fried. If we want to make absolutely certain that there aren't anymore of these guys running around, we gotta grab one of them and make him tell us!" Klaud stated as she got the watery card ready.

Klaud fired the watery whip at the running vampires and grabbed Edward by his leg before dragging him backwards. Edward raised his palm open handed at Klaud and at once a swarm of kamikaze birds were on top of them.

"I got it!" Angie fired her weapon at the swarm, destroying them in a spectacular explosion.

A spectacular explosion that served as a cover for Jack to fire several Baseball sized chunks of concrete at the two girls which Klaud had to bat away with her water whip, allowing Edward to resume running.

"Leo to the rescue!" Leo jumped over one of the buildings and landed with a loud crash in front of the two retreating vampires slamming one fist into his hand and cracking his knuckles. "Knock!" Jack raised concrete coated arm in time to block Leo's first swing. "Knock!" The second one sent the man flying through the air and nearly landed on Edward who instead ducked into a Alleyway. As for Jack he slammed both of his arms into the ground and coated himself with thick boulder like concrete armor.

"That wasn't funny the first time!"

Jack and Leo both ran at each other, as their fists were about to collide though Jack's stony armor suddenly disappeared, vaporized by the effects of the Erase card, leaving Jack open for a well place punch to the face that sent him cart wheeling through the air in a manner that some how removed every piece of clothing on his person short of his boxers.

"Two down." Klaud stated holding up a peace sign, completely ignoring the sick snapping sound that Jack made when he landed on his head. "Two to go!"

* * *

This was madness, absolute madness, Henry's echo map only covered so much of the school, and it wasn't even a part that Alex was in. When he realized that the MC Esher landscape wasn't just for show Alex started firing off lances of fire down every hallway he came across and to his horror he not only saw the attacks dissipate in what he could clearly tell was quite a sizable distance away but when he did a double check he discovered that the hallways had apparently rearranged themselves.

"This is cheating you know!" Alex angrily shouted at no one in particular. Throwing etiquette out the window during times of war was one thing. Tossing out the laws of physics on the other hand was another altogether.

"So's attacking school's." Turning around, Alex was greeted by the sight of one Tatsuya Shiba, Silver Horn C.A.D.'s in hand, their sophistication sharply contrasting with the crude tungsten silencers that had been attached to the barrel of the weapons, aiming them accusingly at Alex. "This is the part where you surrender."

"No." Alex stated fire coating his hands. "I think not."

At once Alex jumped through the air, his upward lift enhanced by his fire powers, before he dropped out of the air landing a fire fueled kicked on Tatsuya, who blocked with one arm. Landing Alex could see the black that was hidden underneath the section of the uniform he had burned away.

"Graphene." With a huff Tatsuya blew out the fire on his arm before he resumed aiming his weapons at Alex. "Gotta love being fire proof." Letting out a dissatisfied growl Alexander wound up another ball of fire and slung it at Tatsuya, this time aiming for his face. "Huh." Tatsuya waved the smoke away from himself, revealing a form that was clad in battle armor. "You destroyed the Illusion type C.A.D. I created with Klaud's help. Pity." His whole body was covered in that stuff. Alex picked a direction and started running even as the Maze started moving around him, creating a box on five sides, but the seventh, that was a wall of a different kind, one clad in black armor and wielding a gold and silver colored pistol.

"Huh, I never saw a black dragon before." Alex mentioned as the gears in his head clicked.

"I prefer Mahesvara." Tatsuya aimed his weapon at his opponent. "At a peak of curiosity, do you have any defensive capabilities?"

"No. Jack's our defense man as Angela will no doubt tell you, he's already been captured. Why do you ask?" Alex questioned, noting the weapon aimed at him that seemed to be charging with magic of some kind.

"If you have them then I'd have you use them so that I could then test my new offensive magic against them." Tatsuya explained as the silencer of his weapon seemed to break down in a manner not too different from his Decomposition Magic.

But this wasn't Decomposition. Not as it was known up until now. A tube of psions formed around the gas as it took on a more, candle light yellow, serving as it's own laser sight as it shone a bright light on the right half of Alexander's chest. Then a noise like a cannon went off, a blast that blew a hole into Alexander, the wall behind him, alongside the next thirty walls behind him. Leaving nothing behind but Alexander's chard arm and a several mile long stretch of burnt earth, ash and smoke.

"Hmm. Overkill." Tatsuya noted deciding that he needed to adjust the psion output and amount of Baryon particles released in the blast. No matter, a quick bit of regrowth on what wasn't vaporized and the silencer was good as new. "Need to work on that." A noise unlike a death wail echoed as the school went back to normal, bar a few scorch marks, the walls shrunk down to create a card that did everything within it's significant power to get as far away from Tatsuya as possible. "Hmm. I scared one of Klaud's cards. I suppose that is satisfactory for now." And it was one of the stronger ones as well, capable of a simply ludicrous ability to alter it's surroundings.

* * *

Outside a make shift cage had been built using Antinite emitters to contain the two vampire stars they had already caught. Suddenly one of Klaud's card's zoomed past the assembled group and hid itself in Klaud's deck.

"What's got you so skittish Maze?" Klaud asked as she picked up the cartridge that held her deck from her belt's holster, a light glow indicating a flow of psions into Klaud answered her question.

"She's talking to her cards again." Erika commented prompting Leo to nod.

"He did what?" Klaud shot Tatsuya a glare as he walked into the courtyard carrying a severed arm that he had for some reason cuffed his antinite onto. "Tatsuya. Why is it that Maze thinks you hurt it?"

"I kinda did." Tatsuya stated scratching the back of his head. "I was testing a new magic formula and I miscalculated more than a little bit. As a result it's destructive yield was well beyond my initial calculations." To Tatsuya's explanation a glow of psions came off of Klaud's cartridge that she interpreted as a indignant huff. "My cards would like to inform you that if you ever try to ask one of them for a favor again they'll do everything within their considerable powers to make your life miserable." Klaud stated in a tone of voice which implied that it was less what the cards were saying and more what she was saying.

"Fair enough." Tatsuya stated dismissively, before he threw the arm into the cage with the others. Klaud aimed her C.A.D. at the arm, using The Time Card on it and causing the rest of Alexander's formerly vaporized form to appear in the cage. "Would one of the three of you mind telling us what you are doing in our home land and or at our school?"

"While you're at it telling us where your friend went would be nice too!" Erika chimed in finger pointed in the air.

"That's right, we can't have anymore people pop up with their throats slashed can we?" Klaud asked leveling a glare at their prisoners.

"We were attempting to retrieve the symbiotes you are holding in your school." Alex explained eyeing the group suspiciously.

"Symbiote? Are you talking about the parasite that we took from the hospital?" Klaud asked looking at the men suspiciously.

"The term Parasite is inaccurate. The organism's presence enhances magical power and creates a telepathic connection between hosts. In exchange it only requires a fresh supply of psions, which we generate naturally from our thoughts and memories, hence a symbiotic relationship." Alexander explained shrugging his shoulders.

"That and you feel compelled to go out and find new hosts, hence the Mac the Knife attacks!" Klaud snapped glaring hatefully at the group.

"That was not us! One of our people were killed in that attack!" Jack snapped fiercely.

"Um hey guys! Sorry to interrupt a good debate about who killed who; but you said Symbiotes right? As in more than one?" Erika asked the three men in a cage with a look of horror on her features.

Leaving Erika to look after the three in the cage Klaud alongside Miyuki, Azusa, Tatsuya and Kirihara went into the science Lab, removing the screws in the door via Klaud's Shadow card, and as a added precaution Klaud erected the Shield card around the inside of the vat where they were keeping the parasite. Or parasites as the case was, the little monsters having used the Psion fuel that they were being kept in to multiply to a ridiculous amount.

"Oh boy, that isn't a good thing."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: Three down, one to go.


	47. Chapter 47

**Author's Note** : Not as popular as it us to be it would seem, ah well, time to continue.

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Chapter 47: Experimental Magician Biology: Third Section

Following the revelation about the Parasites and what they had really been up to, there was now a time of much in depth analysis and work. The three prisoners had a fourth added to their ranks, in the form of the woman whom they extracted the original parasite from, the fourth member of the stars team Edward had yet to be caught. There was also the issue of the roughly three dozen parasites being held inside of their containment tube, having used the psion fuel to reproduce like crazy. Not too long ago a government official came by and picked up the parasites without host bodies, for research purposes of course. Klaud made it very clear what her family would do to anyone who actually thought that sticking those into people was a good idea. But for now they were being kept away from potential hosts, and even with Klaud's shield card keeping them trapped that was a great weight off of many minds. The next question then, was their prisoners who had already taken hosts.

"As some of you are aware, the human brain is only suppose to have two lobes." Rebecca stated using a laser pointer to draw attention to the left lobe. "Left brain is where most of the thinking is done, and is the main source of psions." After that Rebecca pointed out the other side of the brain depicted on the chart. "Right side is where emotion comes into play, and is the main source of pushions."

"Yah, yah we know all this already, Magician Biology 101." A bored Leo stated using his pinky to dig wax out of his ear. "I thought we were talking about what those parasite thingy's do to people's brains?"

"I'm getting to that!" Rebecca snapped sending Leo back a bit. "But in order to understand what changes were made and what effect that they have, we first have to get on the same page as to what their brains were like before the little monsters started tampering with them." Now that tiny bit of lecturing had been done Rebecca presented a new chart, identical to the first bar one tiny little detail. "This is what we have termed the central brain, located directly between the left and right halves." Rebecca explained directing the group's attention to a dense sphere of neurons located between the two halves of the brain. "It also has no business being there. With the exception of certain certain cancerous situations, the presence of something like this connecting together the two parts of the brain is completely unheard of."

"According to our nurse upon doing a MRI scan of their patient they found what they thought was a tumor and they removed it." Tatsuya explained clipboard in hand as he reviewed the information they took from the host. "They use magically controlled obsidian dust inserted through the eye, very non invasive if memory serves."

"It was after being forcibly removed from it's host that the Parasite did what it had to to survive, in that it forcibly took another host." Rebecca commented scratching her chin.

"And it's this..." Erika tried to find the right word for it and snapped her fingers a few times to aide in her thought process. "Tumor that grants the host their capabilities?"

"Not quite." Rebecca stated letting out a sigh. "They are not capable of using any magic that they couldn't already use. What this little tumor does is establish telepathic communication between the hosts, enhance their magical power, and lets them go with out the use of a C.A.D."

"So next question, are we buying their story that they aren't the people who have been slashing people's throats?" Klaud asked looking at her sister suspiciously.

"The majority of the victims aren't magicians. There's no practical purpose for trying to make them hosts. It would seem that we've got us a serial killer on our hands." Rebecca stated seriously.

"Ah speaking of which, as the police's not so official representative in this mess, my dad's gonna want to talk to our witness." Erika stated raising her hand.

"Have you informed him of the condition that she is suffering from?" Rebecca asked looking at Erika suspiciously.

"The Official story to his superiors is that he's taken her into witness protection and has part of that faked her death, and that he couldn't tell them up till now because he was busy setting up the safe house. Unofficially..." Erika sucked in air before she continued. "He's gonna be a while, and we might have to wait a minuet or two when he gets here." Because he's been spending way too much time in bars, has had to put on some medical grade stuff, and had to see the department shrink and had to convince her he's not crazy ever since he met Klaud. "Someone should go tell Angie."

* * *

On the subject of whom, she was sitting in front of the cage that had been moved inside of the school's basement and was glaring unamused at her former colleagues, whom it should be noted were now the size of small dolls thanks to _someone who wants to remain anonymous_ shrinking them down, the same person who was responsible for transforming the school into a time space maze, and for putting up that wall around the school, and gods know what else.

"Someone very terrifying has been enrolled at this school." Angie noted, seven foot tall gun at her side as she glared at her former colleagues. "The four of you don't know anything about this do you?"

"Don't look at us, we didn't even know we had been shrunk until they took the tarp off of us." Henry stated defensively.

"Though given what they did to the school we probably shouldn't be surprised." Alex stated recalling being lost inside of the maze card earlier.

"And what are you doing here?" Michaela Hongou, a brown haired amethyst eyed young lady that was also in American black op's, though not part of the stars team like Angie, her department was in research and development.

"Our department was working the black hole research project, and me and the guys were caught up in that psion release that infected the five of us with the Symbiotes." Michaela stated slapping her hands together and bowing apologetically. "Sorry for getting you involved with all of this. But we didn't know who else to turn to to convince everyone back home that we weren't turned into monsters!"

"To clarify, you guys weren't taken over by those parasites in your heads?" Then Angie held up a data pad featuring a message that she had just gotten from Rebecca and the others. "Because according to this those things are doing weird stuff to your heads."

"They're situated inside of a new area of the brain that they created unrelated to either the movement, thought or emotion areas of our brains." Alex explained sitting cross legged and meditating. "Weird though it might be it's not harmful."

"And all this blabber about a telepathic connection?" Angie asked looking suspicious.

"There's only five of us, it's not like we lost in a sea of ourselves or something like that." Henry explained, as some who has been lost inside of a sea of information before he knew what the was like.

"So can we talk about getting let out of this cage now? All this Antinite is making us nervous." Jack stated his head swerving around wildly, away that a little bit of electricity through those bars would be fatal for them.

"I'll have to ask our new associates." Angie stated letting out a sigh. "One more question, why did invade the school?" Angie asked, her knowledge about the true implications of the telepathic connection was comforting, that didn't mean that she wanted to take any chances with people that she knew was trained in counter interrogation.

"You attacked us first remember?" Henry asked holding up a body camera he tore off of the soldier. "The issue of all the symbiotes you were holding captive was mildly concerning too." Henry tossed the item in question out of the cell, aware that Angie was not comfortable with a technopathic prisoner around technology. "Well, even though I say that, it's not like they were in any real danger. You guys did make sure that the one you took from Michaela was okay."

"I can vouch for that." Michaela stated raising her hand in the air.

"Maybe a little too good of a job." Angie stated, recalling the sight of watching the tadpole like masses of Psions swim around inside of the vat. "The Japanese government swung by earlier and snatched them up, they wanted to put as much distance between them and potential hosts as possible."

"That's fair enough." Michaela stated nodding her head, before her eyes suddenly turned serious. "So tell me, what are you and your 'associates' going to do when the government realizes that they now have everything they need to start making super magicians?"

"A bridge we'll burn when we get there." Angie stated checking the dirt under her nails. "But no, you're not getting out of that cage until we know for a fact that your story checks out."

* * *

A tall man with messy brown hair was in the teacher's lounge of First high, draining away the contents of a pot of coffee, before he slammed it back into it's receptacle.

"Vampires? Really? Really!?"

Erika could only sigh at her father.

"That joke has been done to death dad."

"You think I'm... Vampires!" For all his laid back attitude Toshikazu Chiba did not handle the strange or unexpected very well, which ever since his daughter got a classmate like Klaud Reed he's had to put up with a lot lately. "You expect me to just brush off vampires in my town!?" Well to be fair it took the guys a minuet to adjust to the news as well.

"They don't drink blood, they haven't been attacking anyone, and we got proof that our witness nor any of her associates were responsible for the attacks." Erika stated counting points off of her fingers.

"How do you know that they didn't attack anyone?" Toshikazu asked looking at his daughter suspiciously.

"You aren't the only detective in the family dad." Erika stated as she lowered a chart that depicted the timeline she had patched together. "For reasons that he hasn't quite explained to us yet, Tatsuya's got a way of removing parasites from their hosts so long as they weren't in there any longer than twenty four hours." Even if her father was in the police force, Erika had still been sworn to secrecy about Tatsuya's powers. "Logically, the parasite should have been put in there after her neck was slashed, but right after her throat was patched up he used that magic on her but the parasite didn't go away."

Well the truth of the matter was little different, but when Tatsuya's regrowth healed her throat but didn't remove and actually put the parasite back into her instead of taking it out Erika knew that their timeline needed a few adjustments.

"Alright, fair enough. Where's she being held?" Toshikazu asked looking at his daughter suspiciously.

"Basement, with the rest of her vampire black ops buddies and their non vampire leader." Erika stated non-chalantly.

"Vampire black ops!?" On second thought maybe the visit to the boiler room could wait a little bit longer.

* * *

Outside, Leo was standing guard for Azusa who was hugging onto the side of a tree for dear life. It was during this time that Miyuki walked by observing what appeared to be Azusa in the middle of another of her panic attacks.

"Shouldn't we get her down?" Miyuki asked indicating the class president doing a impression of a cat stuck in a tree.

"Leave her, it relaxes her." Leo stated waving the smaller girl off, before reaching up for one of the burritos that Miyuki had on the trey.

"Don't even think about it!" Miyuki snapped slapping Leo's hand away. "That's breakfast for Angie and her team."

"Can I at least have one of the biscuits?" Leo asked rubbing his hand.

"Certainly." Miyuki stated lowering the trey and allowing Leo to take one of the biscuits from a small bowl.

As Leo and Miyuki conversed they didn't realize that they were being watched, but what those individuals didn't realize was that they were also being watched.

"Seriously?" Klaud suddenly piped up, the lightning card that she left in the school's security system having just contacted her.

"What is it?" Tatsuya asked casting Klaud a suspicious glance.

"There should be a rule about only being invaded once per day." Muttering that Klaud picked up her staff and went outside.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.


	48. Chapter 48

**Author's Note** : Yah as you might've been able to tell from the title I'm in a block right now, so updates might be a little... slow for a while. Also sorry but I thought I had published this last week. My bad. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 48: ...I've Run Out of Lesson Ideas

A familiar purple haired Chinese man in a suit had been suspended upside down in the air via a tree branch, looking thoroughly un-amused with the teenage girl who was standing under him who looked equally crossed with him.

"What you can come into my home and place of business whenever you want but I can't come into yours?" Zhou Gongjin asked cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"You were spying on us, and I've got a strict rule about only being invaded once per day!" Klaud snapped leaning into the face of Zhou with immense displeasure and anger burned into her features.

"Really?" Zhou questioned a incredulous look on his face. "You have a rule about that specifically? Being invaded occurs that often in your life?"

"What! The! Hell! Do! You! Want!?" Klaud asked her eye was twitching now, she was in no mood for any more of Zhou's usual game's.

"Well I would give you the rather sizable amount of intel about the American agents in the city at the moment located inside of my coat pocket but I'm a touched tied up right now!" Zhou stated in a voice that strongly conveyed the desire to be cut down. Klaud's response was to tear open his coat and take the file folder with a disk inside. "My very expensive coat that I will now have to replace!" Zhou snapped at the back of the head of Klaud who was already walking back to the school. "AT LEAST LET ME DOWN!" The branch holding Zhou snapped roughly dropping him on the ground before rotting away freeing him. "Ouch."

* * *

Klaud returned inside of the school's science lab placing the disk she got from Zhou on the table in front of Tatsuya.

"I assume that this is important?" Tatsuya asked holding up the disk in question.

"Zhou claims that it is, went through the trouble of coming here to tell us. Information about our American agents." Klaud stated glaring suspiciously at the disk in question.

"Ah I see. So should we be cautious with this disk?" Tatsuya asked holding up the disk in question.

"Considering this likely came from the same people that you blew up!? Yes, caution would be wise." Klaud replied sagely.

Tatsuya put the disk into a computer, which it should be noted was situated inside of a faraday cage, which was in a air gaped room, and began rapidly punching away at key's to boot up the disk with the information he was after.

"First off. Latest information about all the agents, including Angie, the other members of stars, and Michaela. But aside from them we also have this individual." Tatsuya turned the computer revealing a image of a tall forty year old man with neat trimmed hair and thin eyes. "His name is Benjamin Canopus. Apparently he's a high ranking official in American special forces. As of last night he is also in Japan." Then a video played featuring Benjamin and Michaela, specifically Benjamin killing Michaela with a knife. "Oh..."

"Call Erika." Klaud stated into her phone which she had on speaker and was now letting out a loud dial tone.

"Yo, this is Erika."

"What do the police know about the knife that was used to kill Michaela?" Klaud asked her eye visibly twitching again.

"Apparently it's combat knife standard issue for the UNSA. It'd only make since if it was the Stars team that was doing the throat slitting." Or a government cleaner sent to make sure that a potentially very valuable asset did not fall into foreign hands.

"Could it have been more than one knife between the killings, like a copy cat using the opportunity to blame the serial killer for killing someone that they wanted dead?" Klaud asked her voice full of suspicion.

"If it was a copy cat it would likely be a new knife. But the CSI team think that there was a tiny chip in the blade, likely from being used in knife fighting, that made a tiny tear in the underside of the wound when the throat was slashed that was consistent across the board."

"Team meeting. Now!" Klaud snapped prompting Tatsuya to filter the video through a anti-viral program before copying it on to a jump drive.

* * *

A long pause had ensued in the science lab after the video was watched. Then everyone turned their attention to Angie.

"Tell me..." Angie stated in a slightly exacerbated tone of voice. "Have any of you ever heard about something called the Dante Survey? It is the most vital component of the Dante Program."

Tatsuya was already punching key's into a computer assuming that there was a point to this line of questioning.

"'Do people who kill for money, deserve a harsher sentence than people who kill for personal reasons.'" Tatsuya droned in a slightly disgusted tone of voice. "Is there a point here?"

"Officially, the Dante survey is meant to utilize public opinion to re-adjust the criminal sentencing system so that criminals only receive a level of punishment that is appropriate for their crimes or motives." Angie stated before she folded her hands together as a dark look crossed her features. "But it also grants the individuals with access to the information the means by which to assess the information and identify psychopathic and Sociopathic individuals who have taken the survey. Once they've identified these individuals who are willing to kill without hesitation if they turn out to be a former marine who after getting discharged from the military for needing a mechanical prosthesis to replace their arm and had since then gotten a minimal wage job melting down medical waste at a hospital, then recruiting them as assassins becomes a no brainer."

"Just to clarify, we've got a mechanically enhanced psychopath with military training lose in the city ripping random people's throats out?" Erika asked looking at Klaud with a look of horror on her features.

"Making assassinations look like the working's of a serial killer is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and not at all hampered by the fact that sometimes the individuals in question are actually serial killers." Angie stated the disgust in her voice becoming harder to hide. "Apparently some people find it amusing to watch authorities scratch their heads trying to link together seemingly random people to the inner workings of mad men with knives."

"Lovely, how do we find old Benny Boy?" Leo asked knuckles already cracking with anticipation to go pound some well deserved face meat in.

"This guy is a hit man right? Maybe the people he killed were hits too?" Miyuki asked holding one hand up.

Tatsuya went to work, bringing up a list of people who had been killed by 'Mack the Knife.'

"We already know that he killed Michaela for being a Vampire." At Klaud's pointing out Tatsuya removed one of the pictures on the screen.

"This guy here was a drug dealer, no great loss to the world there." Leo commented casually finger pointing at one of the pictures located in the middle of the group of photographs with relevant information about those within.

"The crime techs commented that a large amount of his stash was missing too, based on the dust prints left on the shelves in his lab." Erika commented scratching her chin while she pondered this information.

"The members of the Dante program have it drilled deeply into their heads that they are to stay in peak mental and physical condition. And while they might recruit individuals that are not completely well off in the heads, they don't recruit the ones that they know are going to compromise them or not follow orders properly." Angie mentally noted glancing at Erika questioning look.

"None of his stash has popped up in the blood streams of the junkies the police has brought in since the death of the dealer." Erika stated scratching her chin.

"Well the guy was only killed like a couple of weeks ago maybe they've..." To Leo's line of questioning Erika simply shook her head no.

"Junkies aren't smart enough to wait. They buy, they hide, they use. If this loser's drugs were on the street, we'd know it by now." Erika stated her hand on her chin as a thought occurred to her.

"So he ain't using and he ain't selling, what other use for drugs could there be?" Kirihara asked in open confusion.

"Bombs. Dad always tells me that the crap they put into those syringes at time's is three points shy of some pretty nasty bombs." Erika stated a mortified look on her features.

"But to do that he'll need other stuff for bomb making, like detonators." Klaud pointed out.

"This guy was a truck driver who was delivering cell phones through one of the dodgier parts of town when he made the unfortunate mistake of taking a leak in a rest room." Tatsuya explained bringing attention to another photograph of the victims. "By the time the police got there his truck was stripped of any thing of value, including a large portion of the truck itself."

"Detonators and bombs. So what are they trying to blow up." Kirihara asked scratching his chin.

"These two might be able to answer that." Looking at the list of murder victims like a conspiracy, combined with figuring the roles that three had to play, and it became easier to figure out the motivations behind the other murders, such as the two that were united in location. "Our under cover police victim was investigating a escort ring at one of the more popular hotel's in the city, where a certain janitor now missing his throat and heart beat worked as well." Tatsuya explained drawing attention to two more of the victims in question.

"So that's the how and where, now we just the when and why." Kirihara stated, to which end Tatsuya replaced the two pictures that were zoomed in on with the two pictures of the remaining two victims whose roles in this were unknown.

"This lady apparently delivered water to various buildings around the city, and this guy was some kind of information broker, though without knowing what he knows and what he told old Benny..." Klaud stated tapping a finger on her chin.

"Her water truck on the other hand provides her with the means to smuggle things in and out of the hotel and serve as a decent base of operations in the hotel while whatever operations he's running goes underway." Tatsuya explained rubbing his chin.

"So we know where and who." Leo stated a grin being conceived on his features. "So are we going after these guys ourselves, or are we bringing the vampires along with us? Cause I really wanna go and pound some face meat right now!"

* * *

Inside of a particular hotel, a tall, roughly forty year old man dressed in as a janitor was pushing a cart through the hotel, entering one of the rooms he fluffed the pillows, cleaned the floors, and planted a block of white stuff underneath a bed.

"Well don't that look suspicious." Looking up at a darkened corner of the room Benjamin saw Klaud use a lamp to light up the corner of the room that she was sitting in.

"What is that some kind of home made C4 cocktail?" Benjamin reached for a weapon in his waist band, only to now notice a red light trailing over the room, which ultimately led to a red dot located on his chest, tell tail signs of a sniper. "I wouldn't bother trying to shoot back. Remember Michaela, the young lady that you tore the throat out of? If you do I'm sure then that you also recall her best friend Henry, and his remote controlled sniper rifles." Klaud stated a smile on her face.

"So you befriended the parasites. Or you're one of them." Benjamin commented cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"They prefer Symbiotes. And more importantly they are not the ones I'm angry with!" Klaud stated in a dangerous tone of voice. "Now if you wanna get out of this situation alive, you will tell me who you're trying to kill, and for what reasons." Klaud asked in a dangerous tone of voice that conveyed her feelings of impatience.

"Hmm. To Business I see. But onto more important matters." Benjamin stated grabbing hold of the bed frame of next to him. "I'll have to refuse."

Benjamin threw the bed onto it's side and turning it into a makeshift bullet sponge. Klaud prepared her sleep card to shoot the cyborg but he slammed his mechanical arm into the floor hard enough to throw Klaud off balance throwing Klaud's shot off enough that he was able to smash through the floor hard enough to break through the floor into the room below. Klaud switched over to the shot car and fired it down the hole, but Benjamin was already on the move. He escaped into the bath room where he tore a mirror off the wall where the shot card bounced off it and he smashed his way out of the cramped room landing in a dumpster full of random organics on the ground floor. Said Dumpster immediately had it's lid closed and welded shut by Alex, whom for added measure set the dumpster a flame with the intent of cooking it's contents like a baked potato. A metal arm with bits of artificial flesh tore it's way out of the make shift oven. Benjamin was able to pull himself out of the soupy mess panting somewhat as he struggled to breath, fending off the feeling of his lungs were cooked and burnt all over his body by the soupy mess inside of the dumpster. Leo grabbed hold of Benjamin by the collar of his shirt and threw him over head before slamming him into the ground again, Benjamin however did not take it lying down and grabbed Leo by his ankle before swinging him around and throwing him down the alley way ball and chain toss style. Alex took the liberty of grabbing Benjamin from behind and spinning him around to face him, holding one of Klaud's cards up to his face.

"And you thought I was scary before."

Saying that, the card turned into red light and was absorbed into Alex's body. Suddenly his entire body was wreathed in a blazing inferno, the fire wrapping around his body with such density that it was like armor. With one punch Alex sent Benjamin flying down the alley way into a bear hug from Leo, leaving a sizable burn across his chest. Benjamin bent over and pulled Leo over him and slammed him into the ground like a judo throw. Klaud, having made her way into the hole that Benjamin made in the Hotel, took aim with her C.A.D. in gun form and opened fire on the rampaging cyborg below them with the arrow card.

"Surrender or die! Your choice." Klaud snapped aiming her weapon at the man.

"I choose option three." Pressing a button hidden inside of his pant leg, Benjamin set off several explosions went off in the hotel, the explosions planted throughout the hotel going off all at once. Chunks of rubble from the bed that Benjamin had tossed on it's side going off above Klaud rained down on her head. Klaud only narrowly defended herself by raising a barrier up with the shield card.

"Crud!" Leo smashed incoming projectiles while Alex was forced to release a incinerating blast to dispose of a number of wooden chunks.

Benjamin was able to use the distraction to rush past Benjamin into the streets.

"He's getting away guys!" Klaud shouted into her ear com.

Fortunately, they had contingencies for this exact scenario, one group lined up on the left side of the street, and one on the right side. Benjamin choose to go left. Several chunks of ice the size of ice burgs fell from the sky and landed on either side of the American agent, boxing him in the street.

"Me and my friends do not appreciate your blatant harassment." Miyuki snapped another huge floating chunk of ice waiting to fall on his head. Benjamin's first instinct was to pull out his gun and aimed it at Miyuki. "I should remind you that currently I am the only thing that is keeping a multi-ton chunk of ice from falling on your head. I die, you die." The gun fell from Benjamin's hand, which for good measure he kicked away from himself, Alex melted through the ice and was joined by Leo who was carrying a set of hand cuffs.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thank you. All I ask for is a little bit of reassurance every once in a while.


	49. Chapter 49

**Author's Note** : No reviews, disappointing. No matter, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 49: International Politics: The Carrot and the Stick

The American agent had been bound using anchoring magic, which aside from 'anchoring' his limbs together also bound a blind fold and ear plugs to appropriate areas as well, and was currently sitting in a chair in the school's disciplinary room. A in depth analysis showed that while he did indeed have a large number of body modifications, including the now absent cybernetic arm, he was not a magician. Which in special forces while not common wasn't unheard of either.

"So after all the trouble this guy gave us." Leo stated gesturing to across the room to their blinded and deafened prisoner. "And it turns out that he's not a magician at all?"

"No, just a product of advanced engineering and training." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin. "We can't afford to underestimate our foes just because they can't use magic. Have we determined why he was trying to bomb that hotel?"

"He hasn't been talking since we caught him, whatever he's up to, he isn't interested in sharing." Erika stated thumbing their target.

"And just what exactly has he been up to that warrants the destruction of a entire hotel full of innocent people?" Miyuki asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"We don't know, but we're looking into it." Erika stated crossing her arms looking dissatisfied. "Does our American agents know?"

"She and the other stars knows of our rogue agent. But they don't know what he's doing here." Miyuki explained scratching her chin.

"And our Chinese tipster?" Tatsuya asked cocking his sister a suspicious brow.

"Klaud is working on him." Miyuki stated a hint of a smile on her features.

* * *

"Yah know, if this is to become a common occurrence, I should consider getting a more appropriate work clothing." Zhou Gongjin explained hanging upside down in his apartment, suspended in the air by a water whip.

"Why did the American want to bomb the hotel?" Klaud asked sitting on Zhou's couch and glaring angrily at her informant.

"Isn't it enough that I warned you about the bombing, I also have to figure out why they wanted it destroyed?" Zhou asked as a incredulous look on his features as the blood started to visibly rush to his head. "Also is this really necessary? The blood is starting to go to my head, and I'll be no good to you if I die from that."

"All the better to help you think. Now what's a _Chinese_ informant doing ratting on a _American_ operation!" Klaud stated making her suspicious tone of voice all the more clear.

"It is rather difficult to smuggle explosives into the country, I would know." Zhou explained in a knowing voice. "It would be much simpler to buy them on the black market, of which I should remind you that I control, or in the case of our associate, make them yourself."

"If you were so concerned about the bomb threat at the hotel then why did you help him? It's not like anyone can slap together a bunch of home made explosives from the scum of drug dealers!" Klaud asked accusingly.

"If I refused he would then he would assume I would tell the authorities about it, and alter his plans, that would render the information I have useless." Zhou explained as his face started turning red. "Really young lady I'm about to pass out and then I'll be no good to you." To Zhou's begging Klaud snapped her fingers and dropped him on his face. "Thank you."

"Why did he want to blow up the hotel?" Klaud asked heel of her boot pressed firmly to the back of the criminal's neck. "Some kind of big hush hush meeting was apparently being held there by members of the ten masters clans." Zhou explained shrugging his shoulders.

"Why?" Klaud repeated getting a little annoyed with how deliberately vague her informant was being at the moment.

"You mean you don't know? That he didn't tell you?" Zhou asked incredulously, angering Klaud who whipped out the sword card and pressed the tip of the blade to the back of Zhou's neck.

"Make me ask again it will cost you a finger!"

* * *

After the bombing at the hotel the meeting was moved to instead be held at another, more high security, building across the city. Maya and Miyu of the Yotsuba clans were at a big round table. Gathering around that were the other clan heads, banners behind the seats with the names of the ten clans lined up in a circle: Ichijo, Futatsugi, Mitsuya, Yotsuba, Itsuwa, Mutsuzuka, Saegusa, Yatsushiro, Kudo and Jumonji. The two women noted that the clan heads, including themselves, were rather shaken up, being caught in that explosion earlier today would have that effect on anyone. And their concerns were not helped by the presence of the one who had saved their collective lives either.

"Syaoran Li." The Ichijo clan head started off rather tentatively. "Though we are immensely grateful for the saving of our lives earlier this day." A process that was infinitely more terrifying than the bombing, using shield magic superior to Jumonji clan's to protect them. Commanding the fire and the debris to part for them. Cast illusion to hide them from the authorities to pretend that they were never there. The level of raw power and control to do it all. Such rampant variety of abilities in one package... there was no doubt that he was the father of the Reed girl who made such a mess at the Nine School's competition. Not anymore. "There is still the matter of why you've wish to appear before all of at this time, Senator Li."

"I am here because I've had enough." Syaoran stated unflinching, his glare panning the room as he looked each of the clan heads in their eyes. "How many years have we've been at war with one another?" Oh true their's not any official wars going on at the moment. Just like how the Chinese didn't invade Japan with the intent of pillaging their young magicians and all their research projects. Just like how Japan didn't launch a retaliatory strike on the Chinese fleet with with their secret strategic class magician wiping out a third of their navy in the process. Just like how the American's did not attempt to bomb the conference for the purpose of stopping this meeting from happening potentially leading to a alliance of two of the worlds great super powers. "How long have we stabbed one another in back, slaughtered and killed and made others slaughter and kill in our name? Too long, far too long in fact. This, has to end. We need to stop killing each other."

"A good speech but how do you intend to enforce it?" The Jumonji clan head asked, cocking a suspicious brow at Syaoran in the process. "Human nature dictates that we'll never stop trying to one up each other, we'll always be suspicious and at one another's throats. The only thing that has stopped us from nuking one another is the fact that he uranium mines dried up over sixty years ago. Without the threat of mutually assured destruction any more the various countries are now far less scared of the prospect of being wiped off the face of the map."

"Except that isn't true any longer is it? Your country has it's secret weapon, what was his name again? Tatsuya?" That surprised the ten clan heads, all except for Maya and Miyu. "Oh yes my daughter has managed to become good friends with him. And the Americans have managed to get their hands on these." Taking out a canister and placing it on the table, many of the clan heads had a good idea as to what they are. "Symbiotic, parasitic, telepathically linked psion based organisms that dramatically enhance a magicians capabilities. Granted they're no molecular bomb, but build a army out of them and they wouldn't need one. If you need more convincing about how the other countries have their own weapons of mass destruction, Then China, has my family, not my wife and daughters who live in your country, but rather my side of the family, whom as we've already demonstrated, are more than a match for the rest of you. And as for the Russians..." Syaoran laughed, both sinister and knowing. "I will admit my lack of knowledge about the country and it's affairs. Perhaps one of these days I should ask my cousins living over there in the New Soviet Union how their little mass mind control project is going."

"Alright alright! We get your point. But even so what about it? The revelation of all of these weapons of mass destruction laying about isn't going to make people less paranoid!?" The Kudou head stated growing irritated, his eye twitching as he looked at Syaoran suspiciously.

"Precisely." Syaoran stated smirking knowingly. "This might seem like a strange concept to all of you, but people don't want to die! The decision whether or not to go to war ultimately lies with the people, and without their support it will be a very short battle."

"It unfortunately it's not that easy." The Itsuwa head stated looking disappointed in the fact that Syaoran appeared to them without a actual plan. "There is this long standing tradition among the government wherein they abduct people from their homes, put guns in their hands, and drop them off at battle fields: it's called drafting."

"Precisely why it is necessary to teach people the importance of not resorting to such tactics." To Syaoran's statement the clan heads started laughing, all except for Maya and Miyu that is.

"And how do you intend to do that?" The Mutsuzuka clan head asked cocking a amused brow.

"Have any of you ever heard of a Carrot stick relationship? It's when you use both positive and negative reinforcement to encourage people to do what you want them to do." Suddenly, a massive aura started to emanate off of Syaoran, one that made the members of the ten master clans, many of whom were powerful magicians in their own rights, flinch. "Allow me the pleasure of putting this bluntly: Me Stick, you carrot!"

* * *

Klaud was just arriving at school after getting back from Zhou's apartment. She spotted the familiar sight of the student body president doing her 'Stuck Up in a tree routine' with Leo below her sitting guard.

"Is she at least getting some work done stuck up there all day?" Klaud asked looking highly amused.

"Yes, but after doing that then doing this helps her to relax." Leo stated letting out his own amused chuckle.

"Well can we get her down from there? We've got more stuff happening." Letting out a short, fearful whine, Azusa slowly climbed out of the tree and stood on the ground.

"What's wrong now?" Azusa asked knowing how these conversations usually go.

"Hotel bombing's a dead end, nothing for us to do." Klaud stated shrugging her shoulders.

"What?" Leo asked sounding disappointed.

"There. Is. Nothing. To. Be. Concerned. About!" Klaud stated deliberately putting emphasis on every word.

"Klaud with all do respect..." The ground briefly rumbled as another explosion went through the air, Azusa jumping so high she was in the tree and Leo shooting Klaud a glaring look. "Is there still nothing to worry about?"

"Yep, nothing to worry about." Klaud stated walking by Leo.

"Ah so it's one of those days where we get to take a day off and let the adults handle all the important stuff." Leo stated nodding his head sagely.

"He got himself into this mess, and he can get himself out of it." Klaud stated before she walked away.

* * *

In the smoking ruins of the hotel, in the center of the chaos stood one single individual, Syaoran Li, and surrounding them, was the heads of the Ten Clans as they recovered from a very thorough beating.

"So, have we come to understand how this is going to work yet? Or do I have to be just a touch more thorough with all of you?"


	50. Chapter 50

**Author's Note** : Hmm. No reviews, annoying. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 50: Psychological Warfare Tactics.

The dust was settling after the the second explosion that day, the Jyumonji clan shield combined with their quick reflexes was enough to stop the magic attack from Syaoran. The Ichijou's clan's quick retaliation reduced the Chinese dignitary in question to a bloodied smear. They took a moment to calm their nerves down, the man who suddenly saved all of them from a terrorist attack with ease suddenly turning on them gave them a bit of a scare.

"Maya, would you mind explaining why your cousin just tried to kill all of us?" The Kudou head asked looking extremely displeased with the sisters.

"A Cousin by marriage. We know not what he is thinking, nor do we pretend to." Maya stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Well at least he's dead now, we shouldn't have anything to worry about anymore." The Saegusa head stated wiping a sweating brow.

"You are mistaken." Maya stated in a even and uncompromising tone of voice.

"Do you mean he's not dead?" The Insulted Ichijou clan head asked drawing the group's attention to the floor. "Because if so then I draw your attention to the puddle of blood on the floor."

"Yes he's dead. No our troubles are not over yet." Maya stated smirking at the confused clan heads.

Suddenly, energy in the form of lightning arched about the room from the pool of blood. The first thing to reform was a hand, pointing upwards as if asking those present to wait a moment, before the rest of the body soon followed taking on the form of Syaoran who looked like he was never even injured.

"So, Carrots, does anyone want to back out now or shall I continue to establish why picking a fight with my home land in it's 'weakened state' is a extremely bad idea?" Syaoran asked as he started to limber up.

"We're out." Maya stated raising her hand into the air. "We'll be at the bar when you're done kicking their asses Syaoran." Saying that both of the Yotsuba sisters stood up and went for the bar in order to get some drinks.

"Anyone else?" Syaoran asked in a challenging tone of voice. "Don't look down on Japanese you butt pain!"

At once the Futatsugi clan head aimed his C.A.D. at Syaoran, and unleashed a powerful airborn agent at him. This was a type of sleeping gas, if killing didn't work maybe unconsciousness would.

"Oh non Lethal knock out gas! Thank you that will save me so much trouble!" Thanking the Futatsugi clan head, Syaoran used wind magic to push the gas up his nostrils and knocking him out cold. "Damn, I used it all up on the one guy by mistake." Syaoran cursed realizing he was caught up in his own momentum.

"You aren't the only one who can use more than one type of magic!" The Mitsuya clan head magically tore out several chunks of earth, ignited the floating stones, sucked and concentrated oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen around the stones turning them into molten balls and flung them at Syaoran.

"Hmm. Gonna be hard to beat that." With a wave of his hand Syaoran turned the incoming projectiles into smoke, smoke that he used wind magic to blow back at the Mitsuya clan head, time magic to turn the smoke back into stone projectiles, and speed magic to increase the acceleration and smashed it clean through the wall behind the Mitsuya clan head.

"Let's see you shoot through one of my distortions!" The Itsuwa Clan head stated holding out his C.A.D. as the space between him and Syaoran started to go crazy.

"Wow you've got a spatial distortion like what, eight ten feet high? That is impressive." Syaoran stated in unimpressed voice.

Pointing his finger to the sky the entire space changed, growing, shrinking, stretching and replacing the little meeting room with a massive maze.

"What... What kind of common sense..."

While the Maze rampaged freely the Mutsuzuka clan head was attempting to escape, spitting out fire onto the walls trying to escape from the twisting turning prison. A fire spirit emerged from the wall that then grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and threw against a wall. The Saegusa head attempted to burn through wall by manipulating light only to be swallowed by darkness. The Yatsushiro head attempted to use gravity manipulation magic to crush Syaoran, somewhat hassled by the fact that he wasn't there so much as a illusion of him was. The Retsu Clan head attempted to swarm the maze with illusions looking for a way out, a bright red colored projectile zipped through the maze and nailed him in his back. The Jumonji clan head attempted to defend himself from Syaoran using a barrier. Syaoran produced a magical blade and slashed open the shield that the Jumonji clan head had produced to defend himself.

"Anything else you wanna try?" Syaoran asked, gesturing a wall that then opened up and deposited the various other clan heads at their feet.

"On Behalf of the Ten master Clans, we hereby submit to your authority." The last remaining clan head wisely choose to do so. Smirking knowingly Syaoran tapped his blade on the ground and returned the room back to normal, all signs of battle damage disappeared, along with it should be noted the injuries done to the other clan heads. "Your demands?"

"A cease fire, if you don't send anyone over to my country to go around splitting atoms left and right we won't send anyone over to this one to bully your Clans." Syaoran stated in a uncompromising tone.

"Agreeable." The Jumonji clan head stated letting out a relieved sigh.

"Great. You wanna go and get some drinks at the bar then?" Syaoran asked in a overly friendly manner.

* * *

Klaud had called yet another team meeting inside of the school's science lab as she explained to them what Zhou had told her. It took a while for her to get a response, largely because those she had told this information to had to pick their jaws up off of the floor.

"So as I understand this situation correctly..." Miyuki stated rubbing her temples and suspecting that she's going to need a exceptionally strong beverage of some kind in the near future. "Your father lured the collective might of the Ten Master's Clans heads into a ambush, in order to negotiate with them?"

"Yah, pretty much." Klaud stated noting that her classmates still had yet to close their gaping mouths.

"Who exactly thinks that doing something like that is a good idea?" Erika asked looking at Klaud like she was the spawn of some kind of demon.

"The same one who raised Maylin." Klaud stated in a knowing and somewhat tired tone of voice.

"But come on guys, this is the Ten Master Clans we're talking about here, I mean it's not like they'll actually lose in a fight against one guy right?" Erika asked shrugging her shoulders with a smile on her face.

It was at that point in time where Klaud's cell phone started to ring.

"Hello. Oh Mayumi nice to hear from you. Did he now? Believe me when I say that..." The Klaud's phone started ringing again. "Hang on got another call." Klaud stated before she pushed a button on her phone. "Ah Katsuho so... Mayumi had just called about that..." For a third time Klaud's phone rung. "Ex-squeeze me. Masaki lovely to... yes, yes he did. Should I just put you all on speaker now?"

While Klaud had that conversation over her phone Miyuki's phone also went off as well prompting her to answer.

"Auntie Maya. How is it that I was expecting your call?" Miyuki asked in a sarcastic tone of voice.

It took a solid hour of conversation on Klaud's part before her three callers agreed to a face to face chat in person, even then it was a conversation being held in Klaud's apartment. Before then though, Klaud had some business to take care of for her father concerning a certain American squatter.

"So your father, who is apparently the Chinese Ambassador, who is also some kind of super crime boss, who is also a super pumped up magician, gave this to you, and told you to give it to me to watch? Why?" Angie asked looking at Klaud with suspicion and disbelief as she held up a jump drive that Klaud had just given her.

"I don't pretend to be able to read the mind of my father Angie. He asks me for a favor, I do one for him, when I ask him for a favor, he becomes a little a easier to negotiate with." Klaud explained as she got out chips and dip for when her guests arrived.

"Expecting someone?" Angie asked looking at the chips and dip arrangement on the table with suspicion.

"Yes actually. They're coming to discuss what I suspect is the contents of that jump drive." Klaud explained as she moved the room's love seat around.

"Aha. Well in that case I can just hook it into that TV and the lot of us can watch it together." Angie stated as she began to tamper with the TV and the Jump Drive.

A few minuets later and the bell for Klaud's apartment rang, shortly thereafter letting in Katsuho, Mayumi and Masaki.

"Mayumi! Good to see you again!" Klaud stated giving the older girl a hug.

"Klaud, your sight is as lovely as ever." Masaki explained holding out his hand for Klaud.

"Why thank you Masaki." Klaud stated holding out her hand and letting the other boy take and kiss it.

"Klaud. I understand that you and your boyfriend haven't seen each other for a while but there is something of a urgent matter we came to discuss." Katsuho stated standing over the two individuals and looking down at them slightly displeased.

"Then as they say in my country, let the show go on!" Saying that Angie hit the play button on the video footage on the jump drive.

The three individuals watched in horror as one man single handedly decimated all ten heads of the Ten Master Clans which included many of their parents to whom they all knew were not the types that one takes lightly.

"Excuse me. I have to go make a call." Angie stated stiffly getting up and a little too calmly walking out of the apartment before bolting down the stair's the moment she was out of the line of sight of those within Klaud's apartment.

"So your Dad sent that video to..." Mayumi asked still not fully making reason out of this situation.

"Probably to get her to make the very same call that she's making right now." Klaud could only sigh in exasperation.

" _Why do I have a family like this?_ "

While Klaud preyed to some deity up high about what kind of past life she lived in order to be saddled with a crazy do as you please family like this the others still had questions for her.

"So your Dad just told the Americans that he's a total badass that can wipe out the entire Japanese military single handed because...?" Masaki asked looking over at Klaud suspiciously.

"Mostly likely because he's going after them after he's done here." Klaud stated in a exasperated sigh.

"Giving them the chance to ambush him and failing will crush their delusions of resistance and fuel their feelings of futility." Klaud stated unamused.

"You make your Dad sound like some kind of war lord." Mayumi commented sounding more than a little bit terrified of Klaud right now.

"You say make it sound like he isn't." Was the only thing that Klaud could say to counter.


	51. Chapter 51

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now I guess. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 51: I can't think of a chapter name right now

Klaud, Rebecca, their father Syaoran, alongside Klaud's squatter Angie, Tatsuya, Miyuki, Mayumi, Katsuho and Masaki, were all gathered together for a celebratory pot luck before the resident Senator went off to America.

"So then. Rebecca, you're working at a magic academy now?" Syaoran asked cocking a suspicious looking brow at Rebecca.

"I get to hang out with Klaud whenever I want: working at one of the leading magical laboratories in the country and plucking out all the useless information in these people's heads are just bonuses." Rebecca stated in a serious tone of voice. "Also I've haven't touched the bottle in weeks, that's also a plus."

"Ah! How are your sisters anyway? I trust they're doing well?" Syaoran asked looking legitimately concerned.

"Maylin's got her hobbies, and as for what Madison has been up to you would know better then I would." Rebecca explained before calmly returning her attention to her meal.

"I see I see. What about your mother?" Syaoran asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"She misses having you, Klaud and us around, but unlike hers our broken hearts don't allow us to lock ourselves inside the mansion and wait for the world to burn. It makes us want to go out and burn it ourselves!" Rebecca stated a tiny hint of anger in her voice.

"Ahh." Syaoran gave only a sympathetic nod of his head before he turned his attention across the table and locked eyes with Masaki with a predatory smirk on his features and a burning fury in his eyes. "So you're the one that had his hands on my daughter's ass during the dance at the Nine School's competition."

"Yes sir." Masaki replied in the most humble and submissive voice that he could squeak out.

"Did you see the Video I gave Klaud earlier?" To Syaoran's question Masaki could only nod his head. "Were you scared?" Masaki nodded his head for a second time. "Good boy." Syaoran stated smiling happily like someone who had just accomplished a hard day's work.

"I wouldn't worry." Klaud stated leaning over and whispering into Masaki's ear. "He did the same thing with Maylin's first boyfriend, and he looks pretty good for a ninety year old geezer." Suddenly Masaki's face twisted in mixed looks of horror and confusion as he turned to face Klaud mouth open and catching flies. "That came out wrong."

"So Mr..." Mayumi stated turning her attention to Syaoran.

"Li. My wife didn't take my last name nor did I take hers, and despite how Klaud introduced me I am only her grandfather." Syaoran stated gesturing to Klaud.

"Well you did raise me too. Until what happened at the Nine School Competition I couldn't even remember my birth parents." Klaud explained somewhat bashfully.

"Mr. Li. I understand that you're planning on going to America next?" Mayumi asked in a tone of voice that was equal parts concerned and confused. "Might I ask a simple question. Why?"

"Well I've already bullied the top magicians here into a cease fire. The next step is naturally to go to the other two super powers and do the same." Syaoran stated giving a casual shrug of his shoulders.

"You're not even going to pretend that you're not a warlord are you?" Mayumi asked cocking a surprised but interested brow at the Patriarch of Klaud's family.

"Why would I pretend not to be a warlord?" Syaoran placed on hand over his chest and puffed out proudly. "I proudly embrace the fact that I'm on top in a dog eat dog world!"

"Klaud: Is everyone in your family this..." Miyuki looked up into the air as she tried to find the right word to describe Klaud's family. "Strange?"

"Not really, my cousins in Europe are really out there." Klaud stated happily with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"China, Japan, Europe. By any chance do you have any family in America?" Angie asked cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"Ahhh... not that I know of now that I think about it. Do we have cousins in America?" Klaud asked looking at her grandfather with a questioning look.

"Not to my knowledge. But speaking of you Americans." Syaoran stated turning his attention to Angie. "I trust a appropriate greeting is waiting for me when I get over there?"

"Political parties are not really my area of expertise sir." Angie stated in a uncomfortable tone of voice.

"No no I was referring to the ambush you were planning to hit me with." Syaoran stated in a tone of voice that was directly opposite of what he was talking about.

"Excuse me?" Angie asked in a disbelieving tone of voice.

"Perhaps you'll try something stealthy. Assassins armed with antinite for example should make things easy for you, or will you try the more direct approach? Heavy metal burst and a trap to try and corral the spirits under my command hmm? Of course I don't seriously expect you to discuss strategy with the enemy over dinner." Syaoran stated smiling happily while talking and giving advice on how to kill him.

"Excuse me?" Angie asked still looking confused as she stared at Syaoran.

"Come now: I'm certified grade A+ Magician genetic material, on top of which I have vast amounts of valuable information about my home land locked inside of my head and I'm openly pushing for aggression. Why wouldn't you be planning to attack me." Resting his chin on folded hands Syaoran locked eyes with Angie and smiled knowingly at her.

"What are you saying?" Angie asked a fearful look in her eyes.

"To be more precise, I am counting on your people attacking me often and with gusto. After all the sooner that I can beat the feeling of losing into your heads and crush your delusions of victory the sooner that I can achieve my goals." Keeping his smile Syaoran uttered these sinister words challengingly. "In other words: I. Must. Break. You!"

The brief echo of a gun sounded as the glass behind Angie shattered and Syaoran caught bullet from a large caliber gun between two of his fingers.

"Hmm. Bullets." Syaoran stated as he limply tossed the projectile away. "Disappointing."

"Looks like I'm gonna need The Time Card to fix my apartment for me." Klaud stated as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Me and Rebecca are taking the others out while you lot stay here and kill each other." Saying that Klaud got up and went for the door.

"Wait Klaud we just can't..." Miyuki tried to say gesturing to Klaud's father.

"Yes. We can. For as long as I have known him, which you should note means my entire life, my father has picked fights with people one does not pick fights with, and either he wins, or he loses and one of us has to put him back together again. Either way I have gradually understood that these situations do not involve me or the rest of my family, and it is our responsibility to stay as far away from the bloodshed that ensues as we can." Klaud stated in a matter of fact voice that was not willing to compromise and was born from over a decade of having the lesson it wished to convey beaten into her mind.

"Good Speech." Rebecca stated wiping her face on a napkin. "Yotsuba dog, your charge is being noisy about getting away from the blood shed."

"On it." Saying only that, Tatsuya picked Miyuki up in a princess carry, which it should be noted caused the younger sister to blush profusely. "Which way?" Klaud led the way to the door as the other house guests for the evening calmly fled out of the front door.

"So how do you think they'll fair?" Mayumi asked as the group passed by the floor below Klaud's apartment.

"I think the only casualty between them will be my apartment." Klaud stated looking at the room situated directly beneath her apartment. "Hey Alex." Where Alex was using his literal fire power to try and burn a hole through the ceiling to get to Syaoran. "Yah know, I do realize that you realize that we can just put the apartment back to normal just like that." The owner of the apartment complex snapped her fingers to illustrate their point. "But I do feel a immense amount of disrespect to my personal property when you just destroy it like it's no big deal!" Klaud snapped very much angry at the moment.

"You can fix this that easily?" Alex questioned before Syaoran crashed through the room on top of him, delivering a mighty blow to him.

Klaud was about to object to something but Katsuho stopped her. If she wanted revenge she could wait for her father to get it for her. In the mean time though, they needed to leave post haste. Continuing their trek down Klaud spotted a room that they had reserved as their ops center.

"Henry how nice to see you again." Klaud stated in a sarcastic tone of voice as she watched the man she knew as Henry use her own surveilance equipment to monitor the battle between Syaoran and Alex. "I hope you don't plan on leaving any nasty surprises in those!" Not that it mattered anyway, the walls turning a bright red as Syaoran used Alexander as a battering ram to push through the walls and reduced the computers and various other forms of hardware to molten slag. "Oh why do I even bother?" Saying that the moping Klaud led the group down the stairs.

"Cheer up Klaud, we'll just fix them when this is all over." Mayumi stated trying to sound reassuring.

"Too risky, any nasty surprises he left behind could be carried over too. Better just to replace it all." Rebecca stated in a uncaring tone of voice.

"That's not the point! This is my home and everyone is treating it like a demolition derby!" The group hit the bottom of the stairs just as the walls around them were ripped in two, the entire upper portion of the building being ripped out of the ground.

"OI!" Klaud shouted directing her attention to Jack who was focusing on keeping the multi ton object he had just ripped out of the ground floating. "IF YOU GUYS WANT TO KILL EACH OTHER THEN PUT THAT DOWN AND DO IT OUTSIDE!" Klaud snapped her patience with her father and the American agents who were squatting in her apartment and currently destroying it at a end.

Syaoran fell through the ceiling that was currently several dozen feet in the air in each hand one of the two people he was fighting earlier by their feet. Using one as a blunt instrument he smacked Henry clean of the building, causing it to fall.

"Honestly." A yellow glow was let out as Klaud's time card reassembled and repaired the broken building like it was never damaged to begin with. "What did I do to get a family like this!?"

* * *

In the mean time Edward was already outside, having gathered together his army of animals and was soon joined by his comrades who were thrown at him.

"I do hope for your sakes that the four of you have a better plan then this." Syaoran stated shaking his head in disappointment. "Honestly, I expected more from the USNA's STARS program."

"Five. The Five of us." Alex stated looking up at Klaud's apartment.

Angie readied her weapon that exceeded the height of her body and fired, releasing a high speed concentrated cloud of heavy metals directly at the back of Syaoran's head. Syaoran's response was to throw up his hand and produced a three layered barrier. The attack shattered the first two layers but was stopped by the third.

"Huh. I didn't expect that to break two of my barriers." Syaoran stated turning around facing the now terrified Stars Members. "Truthfully I had expected that to be a distraction, so that you four could attack me from behind, but instead it turned out to be the opposite, you four distracted me while she attacked me from behind. Well Played." Unfortunately Syaoran's honest praise only sounded like mockery to the members of the Stars team. This was by design. Syaoran was a man who built a empire using brute force, bullying lesser individuals into his command by beating feelings of futility into their minds. Stirring the feelings of resistance into the open so that they might be swiftly crushed.

"Get em." Alex went first engulfing himself in flames so that he might go about attacking again. It wasn't long before Alex's screams of pain followed before he fell to the ground, reduced to a chard corpse.

"That's the funny thing about using fire as a weapon, it don't make you fire proof." Accepting that provocation as a challenge Jack fired several large stone boulders at Syaoran, Edward sicked all the animals under his command at him, Henry fired the several drone mounted machine guns under his command at him, and Angie rapid fired heavy metal burst. A yellow pulse of light emanated from Syaoran and dyed the entire area like a old fashion movie, freezing time in the process. Syaoran took Henry, Edward and Jack and crowded them at ground zero of the attacks that they and Angie had launched. Syaoran bounced the incoming bullets away from him with his bare hands, he took all the assembled dogs and used their own collars to chain them together in a big tangled mess. Next Syaoran used wind magic to gather together the Heavy Metal Burst projectiles that Angie had already fired and concentrated that into a ball, before confiscating Angie's gun and leaning it on the wall behind her, making sure to removed the cartridge first. "And time out." Edward, Henry and Jack were all done in by stony projectiles before they even had a chance to be confused at the stony projectiles. Angie jumped about a foot in the air when the gun she had just fired went off behind her. Angie spun around and took her side arm out to fire behind her, only to instead find Syaoran pressing his forehead up against her weapon, daring her to fire. Her face twisted in frustration, Angie tossed the weapon aside and crossed her arms glowering angrily at Syaoran. "I do hope you have taken notes, it would be a shame if this little... night I should be spending with my daughters was ruined for nothing." Syaoran stated glowering at Angie.

"You're pretty tough when you have civilians to hide behind, but have you ever heard of a weapon of mass destruction? Cause you had dinner with one tonight!" Angie stated challengingly.

"Oh so that means that I haven't crush all hope from this country yet have I? Well I suppose it just gives me a excuse to come back."

* * *

While Angie and Syaoran had that little spat the rest of their dinner guests were down at the local computer store, buying replacement parts for Klaud's new network after Henry broke in and did who knows what with it.

"So I have a question." Tatsuya stated observing a display case of high capacity hard drives. "What kind of magic does your father or grandfather or whatever uses?"

"He's a descendant of the original Clow Reed." Klaud explained absent minded as she examined a large screen TV and debated the idea of getting it for the cyber room.

"This much I already knew." Tatsuya stated briefly recalling the conversation concerning where Klaud got her name from.

"Yes well, his father, a European Magician of the Reed Family moved to China from Europe and married into a respected family of Chinese magicians. Clow Reed ended up learning both their forms of magic and blending them together. Then he went ahead and trapped fifty two spirits into cards and imparted onto them his vast knowledge in the form of fifty two spells and bound them to two guardians of the sun and the moon, Cerberus and Yue."

"So is he like you, using the same formula as Clow Reed to create cards at his beck and call." Tatsuya asked unloading the hard drives from the display case into the group's communal shopping cart.

"Oh no he's more like some one infinitely more terrifying I know, far more dangerous than either I or Clow Reed." Klaud stated as she locked eyes with Tatsuya. "With the understanding that magical formula, with it's symbols and it's sigils and it's spells works on the same principal computer code with it's one's and it's zero's and it's algorithim's it then becomes possible to do what use to need twenty feet of parchment and a pen and instead do that on a computer you can carry around in your pocket!"

"You're talking about modern magic aren't you?" Tatsuya questioned confused at what this principal that he himself knew inside and out meant to Klaud.

"No, I'm talking about the man who invented modern magic! Course what my father never told any of you is that with the understanding that Magic is the same as computer programming code then the calculation area of the brain that processes magic is also the same as a computer. Therefore you can reprogram it and download new programs with ease. Using these principals that my father invented he then reprogrammed his brain and downloaded every spell that Clow Reed ever used and set them up like a RPG's hotkey's, ready to spit them out at the press of a button!" Smirking at the stunned look on Tatsuya's face as he pieced together this information Klaud could only smile. "Thought that would get your attention, after all you and father do have a lot in common." Klaud cast a final look as she walked away. "You both invent dangerous things, and you both do not hesitate to use them."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so.


	52. Chapter 52

**Author's Note** : Not much to say this week, good to hear from you again Duked, it's been a while. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 52: Magicians at Rest Stay at Rest

Klaud and Rebecca were returning to the Kinomoto family mansion on Griffin back, escorting their father Syaoran who would soon be leaving for the United States of North America in the days to come. Touching down in front of the Mansion the two young women and their father disembarked from the backs of the winged lions and were greeted by the sight of the remaining members of their family.

"DADDY!" Madison shouted running over and glomping her father with a hug.

"Awe. I missed you too sweetie." Syaoran stated returning his second youngest daughter's hug.

"Father." Maylin stated leaning over against a wall some distance away.

"Maylin, come over here and give your father a hug." Syaoran stated politely opening his arms open wide.

"Ah No thanks it's..."

"Maylin come over here and give me a hug." Syaoran stated politely once more, though his tone of voice had a touch of force in it. Maylin immediately came over and gave Syaoran what she had dubbed over the years as 'bare minimal amount of hug time' before being released once more. "Now, do either of you know where your mother is?" Both Maylin and Madison thumbed in the direction of the door. Following their lead, Syaoran entered the mansion where Yue quickly escorted him into the master bedroom of the mansion. "How has she been doing?" Syaoran asked the faithful servant of Clow Reed.

"These days she usually stays within the confines of the mansion, though she has also been known to stroll through the village as well. The last time that she left the confines of the pocket space was during the Nine School's competition. She had intended to attend the Thesis competition as well, but young Mistress Klaud insisted she stay away after explaining the situation in full." Yue stated leading Syaoran to the master bedroom.

"'Young Mistress Klaud?' Wow you must be on edge." Syaoran stated letting out a low whistle.

"My best friend has declared war on the world and appears primed to win. Yes I'm concerned." Saying that Yue led Syaoran inside of the room before closing it with him inside. Syaoran pulled over a chair and sat down front of his wife's sleeping form.

"Hard to believe you were the one always so full of energy when we first met." Syaoran commented with a bitter look on his face as he rubbed his wife's cheek with his hand.

"I can still run circles around you though." Sakura stated challenging as she sat up.

"Glad to see you've retained a bit of your bite." Syaoran stated leaning over and giving his wife a kiss.

"I find myself filled with energy when you are home." Sakura stated smiling at her husband.

"You could come with me yah know." Syaoran stated in a hopeful tone of voice.

"You know I can't." Sakura stated in a bitter tone of voice.

"I can't face the world again. I summoned the will power to make an exception for Klaud, but she is a exception." Sakura fell back into the bed before she turned her head to face Syaoran.

"You could stay here yah know." Sakura stated mirror her husband's words.

"You know I can't." Syaoran quoted looking up at the ceiling. "I just can't let them go, not after what this world did to them, not without paying them back in kind."

"So. 'Peace' means that the world is gonna burn while 'War' means that it might be saved." Sakura stated looking up at the ceiling bitterly.

"The nations of the world at large have been slighting at one another for the past four hundred years, long before so called magic existed, even longer then so called peace has existed as well, this madness has to end. If the only way that they'll stop trying to kill each other is to find someone else to fight, then so be it. They can fight me!" Syaoran stated smirking knowingly.

* * *

At First High, even though it was the weekend, Tatsuya was inside of the computer lab, but he wasn't working, rather it looked like he was looking for something. Joining him on this occasion was one Mizuki Shibata, a fellow second year in Tatsuya's class.

"So why is it that you needed my help again Tatsuya?" Mizuki was few among the students at the school who wore glasses, the reason for this being her over sensitivity to magical particles, which meant that she could see magic in it's raw form, and needed to use the specialized 'crystal cut' lenses to keep from being blinded by them on a regular basis. Among the students at the school, she had the greatest sensitivity among her peers and had been given the nickname of 'Crystal Eyes' after a legendary phenomena in ancient magic circles. According to rumor's flying about there are already suitors in the ten magical families circling around her looking for chunks of her DNA.

"Your high level spirit particle sensitivity makes you ideally suited to help me track down something that may have gotten loose: an experimental Psion based organism." Tatsuya stated as he got up from his knees.

To Mizuki, this was a very reasonable explanation. People have been toying with spirits since they realized that they could trap them in computers and reprogram them like a computer program. To Tatsuya though, this was a lie. The reality of the situation was that the organism that they were looking for was any of the parasites that might have escaped from containment in the days prior. Now that the situation was cooling down some, the time had come to try and clean up the aftermath. Part of that was making sure that there weren't any unpleasant surprises waiting for them.

"Is there something the matter?" Tatsuya asked looking at Mizuki with a questioning brow.

"I got dressed up and everything." Mizuki mumbled disparagingly. When a exceptionally shy girl like Mizuki, gets asked to spend the weekend with a exceptionally handsome individual like Tatsuya, barely manages to work up the courage to say yes, goes through the trouble of buying a new sun dress for the occasion, only to be told that they're looking for a escaped lab rat that may or may not even have escaped, disappointment is the only logical emotion for them to feel. "Nothing, nothing. Let's go find your rat. But I have a question, what are we gonna do if it already escaped from the lab?"

"Then we'll probably be looking at an epidemic of biblical proportions." Tatsuya stated in a uncaring tone of voice.

"WAAAHHH!?" Thus Mizuki spent the rest of the day obediently scanning the entire school for any trace of potential parasites. At around noon, Miyuki came by along with box lunches made for both herself and Tatsuya and together with Mizuki were now eating together in the cafeteria.

"You think some of them might have escaped?" Miyuki asked in surprise, though she purposefully neglected to mention what 'them' was.

"If they got loose they could create a plague, if there is the slightest possibility of that happening then we need to accept it as a one hundred percent certainty and treat it as such." Tatsuya explained putting his finger down on the table.

"Is this really that important that we find these things?" Mizuki asked looking between the siblings concerned.

""Well..."" Tatsuya and Miyuki looked at each other concerned and Miyuki ultimately decided let Tatsuya explain the situation.

"The Spirits, code named 'parasites' are a type of spirit designed to enhance upon a magicians capabilities. But the process is not always successful, and at times can be fatal, which is the part where the 'plague' bit comes into play. Four leaves allowed me to study one, I kept it in a vat of Psion fuel and it multiplied. They came by the next day and took the vat, but that still doesn't take into account the possibility that one escaped." Having this explained to her by Tatsuya Miyuki nodded her head in understanding.

"If that's the case, instead of relying on sight like me, we should try and go for something more like radar." Mizuki stated getting light bulb type look on her face.

"Do you have someone in mind?" Tatsuya asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"As a matter of fact..."

* * *

A few minuets later Mizuki contacted her close personal friend Honoka Mitsui and a few minuets after that the brown haired young girl had come by.

"Mizuki how did your dat..." Honoka was suddenly cut off by a crack as the window beside her suddenly froze over.

"Sorry about that, my bad." Miyuki stated in a not at all apologetic tone of voice. "Sometimes my magic flares up unexpectedly, who knows what kind of damage might happen."

"You're still having trouble with that? Maybe I need to design a suppression type C.A.D?" Tatsuya muttered while scratching his chin. "Before that though, we need to focus on finding the spirits."

"Sp-sp-spirits?" Honoka asked cocking the side of her head fearfully trying to pry her attention away from Miyuki.

* * *

Mizuki summed up the situation for Honoka, at once the brunette set to work using her empathetic abilities to scan the whole of the school and surrounding area from the roof top. Honoka lacked the fine tuned precision of Mizuki's Crystal eyes, but making up for that was Mizuki herself checking every area for the parasite. They started with the areas densest with the densest amount of spirits first, the reservoir, the school's furnace, the generator, oddly enough there seemed to be all sorts of places Tatsuya could go to to pick up raw materials around campus. It was then when the group had been examining the ware house where raw materials and projects being worked on by the students was being stored that the worst case scenario had been confirmed. Tatsuya was the first to enter the building, wearing a antinite bracelet in case he had to incapacitate whoever it was that had entered the work area. As it was though he found someone he wasn't expecting.

"You again?" At once Tatsuya moved to incapacitate Chiaki Hirakawa who had broken into the science lab was hacking through the computers, her response was to raise her hand in the air and create magical code out of thin air, without using any visible C.A.D, and fired a ball of compressed air at Tatsuya. Fortunately Tatsuya was faster, dodging the attack, foiling further attempts via Antinite, and incapacitating the dedicated Eighth grader with a blow to the side of the neck. "Got it." Tatsuya had a idea how this happened, Chiaki had yet to give up on her grudge against him and so stuck her nose into where it did not belong, and this was the end result. Hitting her with the his own C.A.D. he successfully removed the parasite without hurting her and left her in a corner before he called the other's in. "We were lucky, we almost missed the window of opportunity to remove it." Tatsuya stated holding up the jar containing the little parasite in question.

"Well, would that be so bad? I mean it's suppose to make people a super magician right?" Honoka asked looking at the jar in question curiously.

"Yes that it is, but it doesn't change the fact that it A contagious and B potentially lethal. Hence the reason why it was quarantined in the first place." Tatsuya explained as he locked the jar in a secure container.

"That's a shame, something like this could come in handy at this year's thesis competition." Honoka stated letting out a sigh.

"Perhaps by then it won't be so dangerous." Tatsuya stated as he activated Pixie to continue to guard the lab while dragging Chiaki off of campus for some well deserved punishment.

* * *

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Hornofdesolation: Thanks, I'm trying to include a light touch of humor in the chapters at the moment, something to help make it not all doom and gloom the apocalypse is gonna happen any day now and stuff.

Duked: Resistance is Futile!


	53. Chapter 53

**Author's Note** : Not a lot to say this week, other that I plan to be busy for the next couple of days so I might not be able to work on this as much. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 53: Magical Genetic Engineering, The Trade off for Magic

Tatsuya was busy working in his lab, seeing little harm to be done in keeping it Tatsuya decided to keep the parasite that he had retrieved from their eighth grade spy, albeit under some heavy guard from escaping again. Also heavy guard from delusional eighth graders too, not that he'd have to worry about her for a while, in theory, being suspended from school and all that. Klaud would be back from sending her father off in the morning too, and they had matters to discuss. The Nine School's competition. After last year, specifically after Klaud made a rampage both on the game fields and off, the judging committee essentially booted her out the front and posted a sign telling her not to come back. Now the had just received a message 'inviting' her to compete again. It felt... strange to him, and stink of something else going on. But that matter would have to wait for the time being. Right now Tatsuya was examining the parasite he had in his possession, poking and prodding and seeing what ways that he could possibly use the thing for. Aunt Maya had a vested interest in the parasites, viewing them as a means of furthering the evolution of the Magician. Tatsuya had mixed feelings about that ambition, but the little monsters were fascinating enough to him to warrant study all the same.

"Progress is slow going, without having a live test subject to test on." Tatsuya muttered as he jutted down a note. His problem was that he refused to experiment on a person with the risk that one of these things could kill someone in the process of taking them as a host. If only the parasite could take on a none living host. And suddenly Tatsuya had a idea. "Pick up. Pick up. Pick up." Tatsuya muttered as he impatiently tapped his finger on the counter glaring at a screen that he was using to contact Klaud.

"Yo." Klaud stated as her face appeared on the screen.

"Hey Klaud, some interesting matters have popped up over here." Tatsuya stated deciding on his priorities.

"The eighth grader again?" Klaud asked in a disinterested tone of voice. "Miyuki called me a while ago about that, honestly how deep does that girl's grudge go? You'd think she would have learned her lesson by now."

"It's not about that, it's the up coming Nine School's Competition." Tatsuya stated in a even tone of voice.

"Well seeing as how I'm banned I don't see how that concerns me." Klaud replied with disinterest to which end Tatsuya hit a button and his image was replaced by the email the school received addressed to Klaud. "They're demanding that I come back and compete again?"

" _Politely request_ was the term of phrase that they used." Tatsuya stated in a tone of voice that implied he agreed with Klaud's interpretation.

"Now why would they do that?" Klaud asked holding her chin in her hand.

"I haven't the foggiest, but while I have your attention, I was wondering if we could discuss something." Tatsuya asked folding his hands together, Klaud smirk knowingly in response.

"I was wondering when you were gonna ask me about what I told you the other day." Klaud asked in a knowing tone of voice. "Unfortunately Rebecca's the scientist in this family, and my father's the one who came up with it, I haven't got the foggiest on how to reprogram a person's brain, your mommy would know more about that then I would."

"This much is true, but that is not the subject I came to talk to you about, before I can begin experimenting with that there is something that I need first, a test subject that I can experiment on without hesitation, thus what I want to ask you about is your familiars." Tatsuya stated prompting a sour look from Klaud.

"You can't use Sapphire and Inari as guinea pigs Tatsuya." Klaud stated in a displeased tone of voice.

"I wouldn't dream of it. Which is why I'm asking how to make a familiar of my own." Tatsuya stated prompting Klaud to look at him surprised.

"If you're asking about how to make one like Inari, then it'll be a bit of a complicated process to complete. Rebecca's already explained to you magical engineering right?" Tatsuya nodded his head prompting Klaud to continue. "Using the structure of a lion and a bird, we then super impose that over the form of a doll that has had it's molecules expanded using magic." Tatsuya took out a note book and began scribbling down notes, a sign that Klaud took to continue. "Using reinforcement magic we grant the griffin that has had it's integrity compromised by molecular expansion the same level of structural integrity as a real lion, but because it still weighs the same as in it's regular toy form it is much lighter, and can take flight a lot easier too."

"It sounds like it would eat up a lot of magical power." Tatsuya commented with a feeling of unease.

"Well that's what the Cards are for, they share a symbiotic relationship with the guardians providing and storing magical power for them." Tatsuya nodded his head, Klaud's words made sense to him, even so there was still one thing that was bothering him, the key component that he was after. "How do you impart sapience upon the guardians?" Tatsuya asked cutting to the point of this chat.

"Using empathy, we impart strong emotion and strong thought particles onto the object that we wish to animate as a familiar using a spirit as a catalyst, the parasites we ran into a little while ago are good contenders for the role when you consider that in addition to inanimate objects we've also been known to use people as well. Hence the Angel and the Griffin." Satisfied with this information Tatsuya closed his note book.

"Thank you for your aid Klaud, it was most informative." Tatsuya gave a polite bow to Klaud as he finished with his questions.

"Bye bye Tatsuya!" Klaud stated waving happily and smiling warmly before she closed the screen.

On that note Tatsuya took a look over the warehouse laboratory and spotted pixie who was on the far end of the lab sitting in her recharge chair and let out a small smirk.

* * *

"You want me to help you with an experiment?" Honoka asked looking at Tatsuya who was leading her by her hand through the laboratory ware house.

"Correct." As Tatsuya said that he led Honoka to a operating table where Pixie was lying on her back turned off. "It is my intention to impart upon Pixie the Parasite that we captured the other day, towards this end I require the aid of a empath to impart a strong connection between Pixie and that Parasite through emotion. Think you can do that?" Honoka looked at Tatsuya, her secret crush and object of undying affection ever since last year's Nine School's competition. Yah. She can do strong emotion and so nodded her head. "Excellent let's get to work."

Honoka held out her hands aiming with the specialty C.A.D. designed by Tatsuya, tubing connecting the container Tatsuya had built for the parasite into Pixie's neck, she imagined Pixie as herself, thinking that she too must have strong feelings for Tatsuya to serve him so loyally. Tatsuya noted the Parasite being sucked out of the containment device and into Pixie's body. Soon the mechanical maid sprung to life and sat up with a jolt.

"Alright, the first step has been complete, I can..."

"TATSUYA!" Hearing that shout screech through the air Tatsuya looked up from his work station in time to see Pixie leap up from the table and tackle him, snuggling into his body with a overly large amount of affection.

"Honoka, is there something you'd like to tell me?" Tatsuya asked in a questioning tone of voice, even with the mechanical doll that was several times stronger then he was bear hugged him.

After prying the doll girl off of him Tatsuya quickly busied himself with writing up the report to give to Four Leaves technology. The creation of Tatsuya's crash test dummy should be enough for his aunt for the time being, he'd ask his mother for information on reprogramming a human mind tomorrow.

"What a troublesome pet project." For now Tatsuya had to figure out what he was gonna do with Pixie.

"So you like Tatsuya too?" Honoka asked eating her sandwich.

Having her secret revealed in such an embarrassing way worked to her advantage when talking to the android, giving them common ground. Not that they didn't have plenty of that already, Pixie essentially being a duplicate of Honoka's emotions for all intents and purposes. Of course the only other thing holding back Honoka's nervousness was Tatsuya's neutrality to the overall issue. It was as if he didn't even noticed her situation that was the same thing as a confession of her undying love.

"Aha!" The Android stated holding a tray that was full of drinks for Honoka to take. "Well. I suppose that my situation is more complicated than others, I have all my memories of my time before the parasite, but now I have all of these emotions too. It's... very confusing."

"Emotions are." Honoka replied neutrally. "So what are you gonna do now?"

"Well, Tatsuya is debating the idea of taking me home with him, but there's the issue in the way." Pixie made a fearful face as she thought about this issue.

"Miyuki?" Honoka guessed recognizing that look of fear on her features.

"Miyuki." Pixie stated letting out a sigh. Even the android knew about the school's infamous 'sis con queen.' "If Miyuki finds out about us liking Tatsuya, she'll eviscerate both of us."

"Pixie is too important for the Yotsuba clan right now, it's more likely she'll just eviscerate Honoka." Tatsuya commented in a neutral voice.

"Eh!?" Honoka could only make a fearful squeak in response.

"In any case, I've already talked to my aunt Pixie, do you mind staying at Four Leaves for a little while? I've already sorted out the issue of ownership with the school." Tatsuya explained walking over to the maid android in question.

"I can do that without much issue. So long as you're willing to come and visit me that is." Pixie stated fluttering her lashes at Tatsuya.

"In that case, allow me to introduce to you my aunt." Holding up a tablet to Pixie, the image of Maya Yotsuba soon appeared on it.

"So this is your little helper minion Tatsuya." Maya stated sizing up the maid android up and down. "I didn't know you had a maid fetish, maybe I should tell Miyuki." Honoka didn't know what she felt was more disturbing, the fact that Tatsuya and Miyuki actually have a thing for each other, or the fact that their aunt seemed to be actively encouraging a relationship between them.

"It's not like that. This is simply what she came as. The ones with the fetish here are my upper class men who have already graduated." Tatsuya explained prompting a amused laugh from Maya.

"If that's the case there shouldn't be any objection if Four leaves take over the project from here. Bring her over and we'll begin work on some tests. After that though, the jar-heads called a while back and asked you to take shots at someone for them." To Maya's statement Tatsuya nodded before turning to Pixie.

"If you'd follow me please."

* * *

Klaud, Rebecca, Maylin and Madison were all gathered together at the docks, seeing their father who was getting on a ship to sail across the sea to America.

"You're gonna sail across the sea in that little dingy?"

Contrary to Maya's concerns, the ship was not small, but rather it was a luxury yacht with supplies enough to last Syaoran and the crew until her got to America, that was not the problem here. Maylin had insisted that Syaoran take a war ship for his own safety as bare minimal precaution, she had already warned him about the Japanese Government who were planning on sinking his ship before he left their waters, so something that could at least take a hit would alleviate her fears.

"I have my vast magical powers, there is literally nothing that they have that can best me in the field of battle." Syaoran stated dismissively. "Rather I need the four of you to create a protective barrier sufficient to make sure no harm comes to Japan."

"Oi why do I even bother." Maylin shook her head down cast and mentally cursed her family that ignored all common sense on a regular basis.

"Have fun getting killed old man." Rebecca stated in a dismissive tone of voice.

"See you next time your home Daddy!" Madison stated in a overly childish voice while she jumped over and hugged her father.

"Come back soon Dad." Klaud was the last of them to give her father a hug.

"Just leave your work at work next time please? I don't wanna have to put my house back together again." Asking that, Syaoran responded by ruffling Klaud's hair.

* * *

A distance away, on a warship that was using optical magic to cloak it confirmed that Syaoran was on the ship that he had chartered. After the battle between him and the American agents he had immediately canceled his flight and instead bought this luxury cruise liner. It was a tactic that threw away all defense while leaving him completely open for the longest possible period of time, as if he was daring them to attack him. Point of interest, he was.

"Preparing Miss Mio Itsuwa for deployment." The lieutenant stated working his controls.

At once, a motorized platform sounded carrying a young woman in a wheel chair with a IV drip attached to her arm to the area above the deck. She looked to be about thirteen years old, with her overly thin and gangly body, but her actual age was twice that at twenty six. Truly, she had paid a steep price for her impressive magical power, lacking any physical ability, she made up for it with her staggering magical power. Even though that was the logic, there was a cheat like existence right in front of her that utterly destroyed that logic.

"So I make tidal waves and I can't get out of this chair, you shit nuclear explosions and you seem just fine." The bitter sounding crippled magician stated.

"Well, I can't feel any emotion, so it's not like I didn't pay for my power too." Tatsuya, in his full body armor, stated as he readied his weapon that required ten people to unlock it's case.

"Trade yah." Mio stated in a depressed dead panned tone of voice.

"Well aren't you just a ray of sun shine." Saying that the two noticed the appearance of a girl in a red and yellow clown outfit sitting on top of one of the guns.

"Gelos? So they called you in too?" Mio stated in a un-amused tone of voice.

"My situation is different from yours. I'm not part of Japan's strategic forces, I just live here. I'll defend the country from attack, but unlike you two I won't participate in acts of aggression against other countries." The clown explained swinging her legs over the gun.

"If that's the case then how did you know to be here?" Mio asked glaring at Gelos suspiciously.

"The guy on that boat is my Dad." Klaud explained nonchalantly prompting Mio to freeze up with a look of terror. "Relax I'm not gonna do anything, like I said I'm only here to defend Japan."

"Defend it from what exactly?" Mio asked suspicion and paranoia permeating her features.

"In this case, his retaliatory strike against his ship." Klaud stated dismissively causing Mio to freeze up in terror.

They waited until they were out to sea, sufficiently far away from the Japanese coast that they wouldn't damage it in the process of trying to kill Syaoran. Mio acted first, aiming her magical power at Syaoran's ship a huge depression soon appeared in the water, as if a huge invisible cylinder was crushing down on the water, until the bare floor of the ocean was visible, leaving the boat to lean on the side of newly emerged dry land.

"And release." Mio was a hydrokinetic on a massive scale, her specialty was sinking ships. Therefore when faced with a enemy on the water, the natural reaction of the Japanese government was to deploy the resident tsunami generator, thus leaving Syaoran buried at the bottom of the sea. That was the idea but...

"You'd think that people would learn by now." The resident God of Laughter said in a amused tone of voice, looking at the cylinder of water that had yet to collapse in on itself.

Rather it held it's position as a pink aura engulfed the yacht and carried it into the air, Tatsuya took the opportunity to fire off his weapon several times. The cascade of explosions never came, strangled in the womb by vicious magic that erased the attack like it never even existed.

"Too weak." Now clear of the water, Syaoran released his strangle hold on the tsunami in the making, on the contrary, he made use of water magic to exaggerate and manipulate it so that it was now a tsunami barreling down on the puny little war ship that had taken shots at him.

"Well I guess it's time I did my part." Suddenly the wave froze solid before it reach the ship, before collapsing in on itself and waves it generated in the process being frozen as well, a vicious cycle that repeated itself until the entire area was a frozen wasteland. "So are you guys gonna keep chasing after my Dad or can we go home now?"

* * *

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Duked: Resistance is Futile!


	54. Chapter 54

**Author's Note** : Not much to say that I haven't already said, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 54: Political Science: Hanging Rope

Tatsuya was in the school's laboratory late into the evening, it would seem that he would be the returning chief magical technician of the Nine School's competition in a couple weeks, and as such he would now be getting a head start on C.A.D. related engineering projects. Even though his job was programming and tuning, and thus his skills would be put to best use in the last minuet work. That said there was a number of new events that year as well. In addition to the returning Monolith Code, Mirage Bat and Pillar Break solo and Co-Op along with the new events, Boat Gunner Solo and Co-op, Shield Down Solo and Co-op and Steeple Chase. Counting the Rookie and Senor events, it was a grand total of eighteen separate events. After last year he couldn't blame them for wanting to shake things up a bit.

"Pixie, how are things coming over there?" Tatsuya asked the Android Maid.

After implanting the parasite, Tatsuya got Rebecca to program extensive C.A.D. engineering expertise into a program that he then uploaded into the android, who was now mounting a C.A.D. turret onto the end of a plastic row boat.

"The machinery is being attached as planned, your air mine program has been loaded onto the turret with the psion fuel tank primed and readied." Pixie stated letting out a humble bow. "Good. And the Shield Down events?" Tatsuya asked looking at Pixie with interest.

"Using your program that manipulates magnetic fields as the basis..." Pixie brought over what looked like a grapple gun attached to a reel of black line. "I've built this grapple gun capable of firing a projectile to hook the enemy shields. The cable is composed of copper and Carbon Nanotubes, it can be manipulated using the magnetic fields generated through the use of your C.A.D. program." To demonstrate Pixie fired the cable at a dummy mounted shield, the magnetic cable was manipulated and yanked the shield off before tossing it away.

"Good. It gives me a chance to focus on some intangible elements of this competition. Something is very wrong about this year's competition." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin.

"What do you mean?" Pixie asked looking at Tatsuya confused.

"Last year we dominated the NSC, in spite of overwhelming opposition in the form of rampant saboteurs and tough competition due in small part to Klaud's cards, and my programming skills. If they were trying to shake things up they would introduce new things that would force us to adapt our tactics. Instead they take two of the events that we made the most of and combined them together, and then they made two of them. That's the same as Handing us two victories. On top of which we have a cavalry battle and shield warfare, head to head combat focused events, the same as Monolith code, which the two of us also crushed. Then there's their choice in returning events..." Tatsuya stated entering deep thoughts.

"Let me guess, all of which you crushed?" Pixie asked predicting a pattern.

"Especially Pillar break, in which we literally took bronze silver and gold, and Monolith code, in which our victories were described to be, well, crushing to put it bluntly." Tatsuya stated deep in thought.

"If I may be so bold to suggest?" Pixie asked raising her hand. "As I understand it First High has, well, placed first for three years in a row, it would be hard to pick out events that you weren't top tier in."

"If that was all then I wouldn't be so worried. But they're also making Klaud participate as well. In spite of the fact that after the events of last year they should have grounds to ban her entirely, and in fact did ban her until it was amended a short time ago." Tatsuya explained his eyes narrowing.

"So a increase in combat focused events specifically naval, group, one on one, Calvary, siege and areal." Pixie stated counting off her fingers.

"Wait what did you just say?" Tatsuya asked looking at Pixie with a shocked look on his face.

"I merely pointed out that all of the events are focused on different aspects and levels of warfare." To Pixie's statement Tatsuya's eyes darted around the room as a realization suddenly came to mind.

At once Tatsuya pulled Pixie in and gave her a kiss on the side of her head, a act that immediately made her perk up, before Tatsuya rushed out of the room.

* * *

Klaud was getting settled into her apartment again, she had school in the morning so right now she was just brushing her teeth before she went to bed. Then she heard her phone start to ring as she rinse and spit.

"Please don't be Tatsuya, please don't be Tatsuya, please don't be..." Klaud put the phone to her ear and in the process confirmed her worst fears. "Hey Tatsuya! How are yah doing this fine evening?" Klaud asked already with a good idea of what her answer would be.

"Not good. I have reason to believe someone has hi-jacked the Nine School's Competition." Tatsuya stated in his all business tone.

"So sorry, I have to go to bed right now." Klaud stated her thumb hanging over the hang up button.

"They've turned it into a war game!" To Tatsuya's snap, Klaud put the phone back to her ear. "Talk fast." Klaud stated all business.

"Squad combat, areal combat, naval combat, one on one, siege. These are all different types of combat, they're also the focus of the individual events, on top of which they've put you who had consistently systematically destroyed every event that you entered in back into the events in spite of the fact that you were suppose to be banned!"

"God I hate the government!" Klaud stated smacking her hand into her face. "I'll let my parents know. Who knows maybe that bunch of thugs that gave us so much trouble last year wouldn't mind returning the favor?" Klaud stated as she entered her room for the night. "I would feel better if I knew what they were planning on doing though."

"War games means that they're trying to train somebody, the covert nature of it implies a secret project so... super soldiers?" Tatsuya proposed as realization started to sink in.

"Super soldiers...? Tatsuya, what did your aunt do with those parasites that you gave her?" Klaud asked sounding mighty suspicious.

"If we're lucky the same thing that I did with the one I had." Tatsuya stated prompting Klaud to give him a highly suspicious look through the phone. "I'll explain it in the morning, team meeting first period."

* * *

As promised, the student council room was taken over the next day, a sign was pinned to it which announced to those who would read it that a co-ordination meeting was taking place between the Student Council and the Public Morals Committee and they asked not to be disturbed. Not that they were doing much, having just been introduced to Tatsuya's new parasite infested minion.

"Hello." Pixie greeted in a polite but dull tone of voice.

"So you took the android maid that our dearly departed seniors made, and you had a parasite take over it?" Erika asked looking incredulous at the contraption that Tatsuya had built.

"Yah know, when I told yah how to make a familiar, I expected theoretical, not... this." Klaud stated gesturing to the android.

"Wait you told him how to do this and you expected him not to do it?" Leo stated pointing to the machine in question.

"Yah that was my fault. He was looking for a guinea pig in reprogramming the human mind. Yah know, without actually using a human as a guinea pig." Klaud stated letting out a exasperated sigh.

"Alright, so what, did you call us in today just to discuss the results of your little experiment?" Rebecca asked looking at Tatsuya and the robotic maid with deep seated suspicion.

"No. It is my belief that someone has turned the NSC into their own personal war game." Taking out his phone, Tatsuya held up a email from Four Leaves Technology that he had gotten last night.

"'FL waiting to pick up experimental organisms from 1H.' Does this mean what I think it does?" Rebecca asked after reading the contents of the document.

"It means that the people we thought came by and picked up the parasites, didn't. Who did?" Tatsuya asked scratching his chin.

"Ah, my Dad called earlier." Erika mentioned holding up her hands. "Mentioned that he would be home late cause he had to play body guard for some hush hush stuff for the government, that he had to escort from a hotel of all places."

"A hotel, why did he have to transport it from a hotel of all places?" Klaud asked before something clicked in her head. "Tatsuya, the four leaves thug that picked up the Parasites, did you recognize him?"

"He wasn't a thug, he was a colleague from the same department that I work at." Tatsuya stated cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"Does he normally do pick ups?" Klaud asked getting increasingly suspicious.

"No." Tatsuya stated cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud. "But there's no one from that place I would trust more."

"Is that how he introduced himself 'your most trusted colleague?'" Klaud asked looking suspicious.

"Yes... which was strange now that I think about it." Tatsuya stated as he scratched his head.

"Ugh!" Klaud groaned leaning back into her chair.

"It wasn't your colleague, lord knows that would have been infinitely better!" Literally wiping her aggravated look off of her face, Klaud turned her attention back to the conversation at hand. "It was a illusion, your colleague didn't pick them up my Dad did! He was using illusion magic!"

"Were that the case." Tatsuya stated in a tone of voice which showed his strong disbelief that it wasn't. "Then my elemental sight would have picked up on it and informed me if someone was using magic on me."

"Oh really. Close your eyes and think about your sister." Following Klaud's instructions Tatsuya cocked a suspicious brow before closing his eyes. "And open!" When Tatsuya opened his eyes he was shocked to see two Miyuki's. Clearly a product of Klaud's illusion magic. "Hmm." Narrowing his eyes sharply, Tatsuya examined the two Miyuki's, and found them to be identical on every level. "Can't tell the difference can yah?" The Miyuki on the left asked in Klaud's voice. "Everyone, what do I look like right now?"

"Cheese Burger." Leo commented raising his hand in the air.

"My Dad." Erika stated mimicking Leo's actions.

"Tatsuya?" Miyuki asked looking confused.

"A giant Klaud shaped rainbow cause you're using the illusion card." Rebecca stated alone in being unaffected.

"Precisely." Klaud dropped the illusion and returned to looking at the assembled individuals. "It doesn't manipulate light it messed with your head!" Klaud stated pointing both of her fingers to her head. "It takes the form of whatever is inside your head at the moment, and builds evidence in your mind, the more you try to prove that what you're looking at isn't real, the more real it becomes to you."

"Hmm. What a troublesome magic." Tatsuya stated letting out a dissatisfied sigh. "So to counter it..."

"You'd need to think about wild and ridiculous things that you'd know you'd never see in real life!" Klaud stated making a show of sitting straight and looking smug. "Not your area of expertise is it?" Klaud asked cocking a coy brow at Tatsuya.

"No it isn't." Tatsuya admitted looking dissatisfied. "My your family is full of dangerous people isn't it Klaud?"

"Yes it is." Klaud stated looking dissatisfied and looking around somewhat angered.

"Wait so your Dad went through the trouble of stealing the parasites just to give them to the Ten Master Clans?" Erika asked looking confused.

"It's precisely the kind of thing that he would do, dangle a new toy in front of their noses and see what they do with it." Rebecca stated letting out a tired sigh. "If they manage to do something good with it, all the power to them. But if they turn around and try make it into a weapon to attack him with, then he gets someone to make an example of."

"Give em enough rope to hang themselves. Age old tactic for gauging a ally." Tatsuya stated letting out a sigh. "In any case we should probably start coming up with a plan to take these whatever they are they're using the Parasites to make out."

On that note the group turned their attention to someone who had remained silent during this entire exchange, Azusa, who was stiffly sitting in her chair. So stiffly in fact that it was strange. Poking her in the side, Leo accidentally knocked her over.

"Whoops."


	55. Chapter 55

**Author's note** : No reviews, I'm beginning to think that this story isn't as popular as it use to be. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 55: Magical Physical Education: Boat Gunner

Two buses had been chartered for the Nine School's competition from first high, all of the C.A.D's had been primped, primed, calibrated and loaded onto the second Bus where Tatsuya stood guard. Klaud had once again mounted on the back of Inari to fly to the final destination, though she was staying awake, providing areal support in the form of top down security. The third bus had the remaining members of the Public Morals committee loaded on board. In short, they were covered. That said they were still being extra precautions, this of course was normal, considering the fact that the year before they were attacked by a international group of criminals, and this year they thought that they were being caught up in some kind of war game. That said, they arrived at the stadium and hotel combination safely without any incidents.

"Well that was anti-climatic." Klaud stated touching down on the pavement next to the second bus.

"You say that like you wanted something to happen." Tatsuya commented cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"The thought had crossed my mind as felt myself wrench my guts for the third or fifth time." Klaud stated as she rubbed her stomach that was worn from air sickness. Suddenly the group spotted a black tsunami as a army of reporters rampaged over the pavement heading in their direction. "Speaking of, you wanna bolt?"

"Please." With that Tatsuya climbed onto Inari's back and they took off through the air.

* * *

They soon arrived in the laboratory area where things were being set up and where Klaud made a Beeline for the window where she emptied her stomach.

"She really doesn't travel well does she?" Tatsuya asked actually surprised at the reaction that Klaud had given.

"No she doesn't." Inari replied as if this fact should have been obvious.

"She's not in any shape to take part in the dance." Letting out a sigh, Tatsuya unfolded a Cot and helped Klaud on it. "Just rest here for tonight, I'll go and get you in the morning for the first event." Leaving Klaud behind, Tatsuya made his way to the Hotel's ballroom where he reunited with his sister and associates.

"Is there something wrong with Klaud?" Miyuki asked noticing that the individual who had left for the technical lab with Tatsuya earlier was no longer present.

"She doesn't travel well. What's the situation on the competition?" Tatsuya asked looking around the room.

"Hello Harold!" Miyuki suddenly shouted grabbing hold of her brother's arm and leading him over. "Tatsuya this is Harold." Miyuki stated indicating the nervous looking blonde that she had just led Tatsuya to. "He's a transfer student from America, but he watched last year's NSC on TV and he very much wants to meet you." Which Tatsuya mentally interpreted as 'This guy, very suspicious and was asking about you.'

"P-P-Pleasure." Harold stated nervously extending his hand forward.

"Same to you." Tatsuya stated much more calmly as he shook Harold's hand in turn.

Having Harold in his sights, Tatsuya immediately went to work using elemental vision to discern as much information as he could. Which is to say not much, Elemental sight not able to give him any details about Harold.

"S-S-Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable." Harold stated as he quickly pulled his hand away from Tatsuya. "I emit a unique psion frequency that makes it so that I scramble the vision of magicians that get close to me."

That statement only made Tatsuya more suspicious, if there was a convenient person that could make himself completely immune to magical sight then he would be a huge asset on the front lines. Seeing as how that wasn't the case, then that just makes this person all the more suspicious.

"I-I Should go now." Pointing in another direction Harold suddenly ran off.

* * *

Later that night, Tatsuya was sitting in front of his laptop having opened a chat box with his associates. That said, their faces weren't the only ones present. No that particular honor went to the ten foreign exchange students who were listed out in front of them.

"Harold Houdini, David Blaine, Christopher Angel. They aren't even trying to be subtle about this are they?" Erika asked letting out dissatisfied sigh speaking of the names of three world famous illusionists who shared their names with various last minuet foreign exchange students that were competing for the eight other schools.

"They have some type of Anti-magic cloak on them, I can't get a good look at them using my elemental sight." Tatsuya commented crossing his arms in dissatisfaction.

"Does anyone have any idea what their records say?" Erika asked prompting Tatsuya to shake his head.

"We can't access the school records during the games. Under normal circumstances they're kept under lock and key, but without proof of our suspicions we can't get the government to open them up for us." Tatsuya stated leaning his face on his fist.

"What are you doing trying to ask permission? You're a computer nerd for Pete's sake hack it!" Leo snapped prompting Tatsuya to shake his head.

"I made those security systems myself, they're hack proof, at the very least they're hack proof with what I have on hand at the moment." Tatsuya stated looking dissatisfied. "It seems that we have no other choice but to participate in their little war games. Unless any of you have any ideas?" Everyone looked to each other and then back to Tatsuya. "Well then, see you all in the morning."

* * *

And morning did come, in spite of the Public Morals committee members from all nine of the schools all being on watch there were no more saboteurs like last year trying to break into the hotel to point the odds in one direction or another. Instead Klaud who had finally recovered from her air sickness during the night was dressed in her clownish thermal diving suit and took the field for the first senior event, Boat Gunner solo.

"Firstly from First high the competitor who made a huge rampage at the games last year, Klaud Reed!"

The Audience roared to life at the Announcer's words, booing Klaud for making a mess last year and praising her for her power. A boat had been prepared for First High's use, however as each school would be having multiple participants Klaud instead walked right by it. Instead she used her staff to produce a ice float the size of a life raft and sat down on it. The sight made Honoka gulp, from the get go she knew that this was more than a competition between school's rather it was also a battle between students as well. As such Honoka came to the realization that Klaud would be making a huge rampage of indiscriminate slaughter against all of the students. Which in this case included her.

"Good luck." Tatsuya stated patting Honoka on her shoulder.

"And now In a rare scenario, a foreign exchange student from China, Misty Lee competing for Fourth High!"

A nervous looking female student in a dark swimsuit and with brown hair walked onto the shores of the competing area, a huge man made lake, much to the boo's of the crowd. China was not that popular here, in spite of the efforts of Klaud's father to brute force their way in. In fact many would argue that it is because of the efforts of Syaoran Lee to bully his way into negotiations with the political company of the nation that China was not very well liked, though the two do have a long history besides that.

"Onto the rules of the events! All of the contestants have been given un-motorized boats that must be rowed either manually or by magic! The water is filled with one hundred targets that must be destroyed, the round does not end until all one hundred targets have been destroyed!" With a explanation given, the screen switched to a image of a count down. "Three! Two! One! GO!"

Suddenly Klaud hit her staff on the water, letting loose a ripple of ice that soon took the entire lake. Not only that, but Klaud switched over to gun form and fired a red mass of Psions into the air, the shot card, on a seek and destroy mission for the targets.

"Amazing! First High Contender Klaud Reed starts the battle with a overwhelming offensive, leaving all of her opponents incapacitated! Remember folks that so long as she doesn't directly attack her opponents Ms. Reed is still in the clear as far as the rules are concerned! Not only that, but she's unleashed a high level spirit on the battle field with seek and destroy intentions!"

"I'm not that easy."

Suddenly the ice that took over the lake started to sink, like it was being pushed away by a giant invisible force, shoved off to the side as it were, along with most of the boats.

"Well now that's familiar." Klaud commented in a clearly suspicious tone of voice.

"A-A-Amazing! Competitor Misty Lee just demonstrated a strategic class magic on the same level as one of Japan's top aces!" Not that a major water disturbance was enough to slow the shot card down.

No that was the other invisible force that was pushing the Shot Card away. Of course Klaud knew what this force was, Honoka, dual wielding pistol type C.A.D.s equipped with the Air Mine program. To counteract the ruthless overwhelming power of Klaud, Honoka had to unleash equally overwhelming power, using one C.A.D. to bat away Klaud's attacks, and using the other to try and clear away the ice looking for the targets in concert with the dozens of other students on the ice doing the exact same thing.

"Of course they're prepared." After the huge Rampage that Klaud had gone on last year it would only be logical that they would make preparations against her. "Well, it's not like I don't have anything up my sleeve either." Saying that ominous sentence Klaud unleashed a second card into the water.

Suddenly the ice started to ripple, as it was gradually shifted and cracked, explosive bubbles rampaging and shifting the ice rendering the surface that was too hard to move on too unstable for the boats to stay on the surface. Not that was Klaud's concern, the shattering bubbles crushing the targets from the confines of the ice, she had obtained a overwhelming victory of one hundred to none.

"Winner! Klaud Reed of First High!" As the announcer said that, Honoka looked up at the score board a bitter feeling in her heart. "Klaud Reed has achieved a over whelming victory with crushing results! What kind of common sense breaking person has been entered into the ranks of this years NSC?"

" _That Much eh?_ " Indeed the board reflected the bitter feeling inside of her heart, Klaud One Hundred, Honoka Zero.

* * *

"Hmm. Perhaps it was a mistake to put her in the solo Event." That Was what Retsu Kudou was thinking, looking at the overwhelming display of power demonstrated by Klaud. "Perhaps if she had been teamed with that Honoka girl and limited to either directing the boat or going on the offensive things might look a little less... one sided."

"Ah... Mon-Monster!" Retsu's son, Makoto Kudou, on the other hand had his jaw hanging open from the sight. "What kind of...?"

"Don't look at me for sympathy, I warned you about her and you ignored me." Retsu explained only able to let out a sigh in response to his son's childish reaction.

"Why hasn't someone of that level of been drafted as a strategic class magician yet!?" Makoto asked angrily. "Magicians have no right to refuse military service, and with someone of that level of power on our side we could easily take over the entire world!"

"Makoto your thinking is too naive!" Retsu scolded in a harsh tone of voice. "That girl had to come from somewhere! And we already made that woman our enemy once! I'd rather not see this small country destroyed many times over!"

"Is... is her family that powerful?" Makoto asked a sense of terror creeping into his form.

"Sometimes it's hard talking to the ones who were born after 'the Big One.'" Retsu stated in a tired tone of voice, men of his age should not be thinking about such horrifying things.

"The Big One? That Trifecta of a Earth Quake, Tsunami and Nuclear meltdowns that hit Japan in the early twenty first century?" Makoto asked as realization slowly dawned on him. "You mean to say that wasn't a Earthquake that started all of that?"

"No, no that was indeed a Earth Quake." Retsu stated in a tired tone of voice. "The real question you should be asking yourself is 'who caused it?'"

"That family..."

"No." Retsu stated cutting off his son's question with ruthless efficiency. "That woman, who is both the mother and grandmother of that young lady you just called monster, is the one responsible."

Monster indeed, Retsu could remember the day that woman walked up to him demanding the return of her brother, how she had effortlessly slaughtered his men, how bold of a front he put up claiming that he didn't bow to terrorists. How she pulled out one card, one spirit of such law breaking power, that then proceeded to turn Japan into a disaster zone in a few short hours. Suffice to say, they were very lucky that she then turned that passion into mercy by using her considerable power to aid Japan in the recovery, even after she made him watch as she destroyed it, over, and over, and over again. Even when he begged her to stop, claiming that her wanton destruction was hampering his efforts to get her brother back. Even when they eventually returned what was left of her brother to her, barely alive and but a quarter of who he use to be. She could have just as easily used that power to return Japan to a pristine state after all was said and done, she wanted them to remember that, the face of that infuriated descended god upon the Earth who would never forgive them for their crimes.

"If you do love this country as you claim Makoto, do not make a enemy of that family."

* * *

The members of First High had been given towels to dry off with and food to each of them following Klaud's crushing victory. Honoka was just sitting in a corner of the room, looking depressed, in comparison to last year, Klaud's victory was even more over whelming, the only reason why Honoka was able to win last year was because Klaud tripped herself up in the final lap.

"What are you being depressed about Honoka?" Klaud asked looking at Honoka with her brow cocked.

"Klaud you cold hearted woman! You still have to ask her something like that even after using that kind of fire power on a frail person like her!" Miyuki stated in a harsh scolding tone of voice.

"What about her is frail?" Klaud asked in return. "Tell me something, what would you have done in my shoes? Intentionally hold back my power? Only reveal what I'm capable of in the last Quarter, only to then gush forward at the last minuet and claim overwhelming victory? Of course not!" Klaud snapped which prompted Honoka to look up at her. "I'm not a sadistic type of person who toys with her opponents only to claim victory at the last minuet! Rather, I took the match seriously from the beginning and as such here we are now."

"You were going all out from the beginning?" Honoka asked sniffling.

"Being serious and going all out is not the same thing, I came up with a simple strategy to claim victory, that strategy was met by surprising resistance so I altered it. Isn't this what the definition of taking things seriously is?" To Klaud's question, the others had no response.

"That... really doesn't apply to you who is so powerful though." Erika stated trying to apply her own logic here.

"Your thinking is flawed!" Klaud stated letting out a growl.

"Even a diseased mosquito can bring a man down with him! The issue of 'difference in power' doesn't apply to real life! Giving up just because 'the task is too difficult' is the mentality of quitters! People who give up without even trying!" To Klaud's statement, Honoka found herself getting up and walking over, sitting down across from Klaud and eating her own food.

"After we're done here... do you think you can give me some pointers?" Honoka asked in a weak tone of voice.

"Certainly, but first, shall we discuss what we saw during that match up?" Klaud asked looking around the room.

"That was the same strategic class of magic that Mio specializes in. Only that individual isn't anywhere near as frail as she is." Tatsuya stated prompting Klaud and the others to agree.

"Hopefully their little super soldier program is limited to just making pumped up versions of Strategic class magicians." Erika stated sitting with her arms crossed. "Still, if that lady is in on this madness then it can't be anything good."

"I have someone that can secure a guaranteed audience with her, so leave that matter to me." Klaud stated a smirk on her features.

"Klaud, what are you planning?" Miyuki stated noting the evil look on Klaud's features.

"Oh I'm just gonna start making Rebecca pull her weight!" While Klaud uttered those ominous words the rest of the Boat Gunner events were sent underway.


	56. Chapter 56

**Author's Note** : Reviews at last, not as many reviews as I would like but reviews none the less. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 56: Magical Physical Education: Shield Down

Shield down, the name of the game for the next event, the goal here being the removal and or destruction of all of the oppositions shields. Granted Klaud's shield was made a bit tougher than most others, what with her applying the shield card directly to it. Not that that was the only thing unnaturally tough right now, thank you Madison for the virtually everything proof bright orange clown costume, now she can be humiliated, terrorized and invulnerable all at the same time. Looking around at the area Klaud made note of her opponents, but found herself locking eyes with Igor Kio of Third High, Russian exchange student.

"Don't tell me that Igor's got your attention now Klaud." Klaud turned her attention to Masaki who was leering at her.

"Got a thing for carnival freaks and body armor?" Klaud asked cocking a suspicious brow at Masaki.

"You'd look beautiful in anything. Which is concerning for me since it appears that Igor has your full and undivided attention right now." Masaki stated taking hold of Klaud's hand and kissing it.

"Jealousy doesn't suit you Masaki." Klaud stated before she turned her attention to Igor who was nervously looking around. "I just find that dude over there to be a bit suspicious is all."

"Really?" Masaki stated taking a look at Igor with a cocked brow. "What makes you say that?"

"Well we looked him up, he and a bunch of other exchange students arrived here late to the school here, he's got the same name as a famous old school magician from Russia, and he's being all paranoid and such." Klaud stated counting off her fingers, also he may be part of a secret super soldier experiment by the government but Klaud wasn't letting that out in public.

"Or maybe he just knows that a pretty girl is looking right at him." Masaki stated wagging his brows teasingly.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the second day of the Nine School's competition!" The Announcer shouted over the micro phone, a sign that the match would be starting soon. "As many of you have seen yesterday, First High seems intent on continuing their tradition of dominating the competition for the fourth year in a row." The score's from the previous day's Boat Gunner events were displayed on the screen showcasing that although they didn't place first in every Boat Gunner event, the performances of Klaud in the solo event and Honoka in the Solo and Co-op Events were both rated consistently high. "To recap the rules for this event! The goal of Shield Down is to disarm the opponent of their shield. Contestants may destroy the shields, or they may deprive them of their shields for 30 seconds. Shields may be used as a weapon, although using the shield to directly attack a enemy is strictly prohibited." With a explanation of the rules done the screen changed from the announcer's face to that of the number three. "3! 2! 1! GO!"

There was no question of who was most popular in this instance. Everyone was coming after Klaud at once, shields in striking position.

"Wow Someone's popular!" Suddenly a grappling cable shot past Klaud and embedded itself deep into one of the shields of fourth high. "But as her bouncer, I'm afraid I must cut in!" Leo yanked on the cable attached to the shield and ripped it off of the arm of the one it belonged to sent it flying through the air and finally landing in the grasp of Leo.

"So many targets." Masaki fired off a shot gun like burst of magic scattering air bullet magic circles around the battle field. "So few places to hide."

At once panicking students forgot about school allegiances and bundled together creating a dome around them of shields as the air bullets were let loose. They weren't safe for very long, magical power made several small implosions around them compressing Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon molecules together into eight base ball sized spheres of white clay, four of which were being suspended in the air by anchoring magic.

"Bang!"

Directly opposite to their birth, the balls of clay ignited into flames, even the sturdy shields that stood up to Masaki's air bullet assault were mercilessly destroyed by that attack and the students inside the protective dome sent flying in a horrible state. A loud siren declared a intermission while the injured students were carted out of the line of fire. It gave Klaud a chance to look at Igor, who looked horrified at what just happened, the Gun Type C.A.D. in his hand aimed in the direction of the explosions.

"Igor!"

"GAHA!" Igor spun around and waved his C.A.D. in Masaki's face, mutually scaring the both of them. "Are you alright man? You look a little stressed out." Masaki moved to place his hand on his teammate's forehead who stepped back in response.

"I'm fine! I'm Fine! What about the ones that just got blasted?" Igor asked gesturing in the direction of the medical tent where students were being hauled away.

"Don't worry about them, medical technology these days is pretty baller. They'll be fine and dandy in no time at all."

And indeed that was the case when a few minuets later the medical staff finished using water magic to knit the damaged organs of the group of students that had made a attempt to protect themselves from Igor's blast back together. That said it had a lasting psychological impact on the other students who were now thoroughly rattled, and Klaud found herself standing only with Leo, the rest of the contestants largely citing reasons along the line of 'Are you flipping kidding me he shoots bombs out of his gun!'

"Our Apologies for the interruption folks! Just taking a breather to make sure that all our contestants are a okay! And now that we have we can move on with the show!" The loud ring of a bell indicated the match had started again.

Igor kicked things off creating another group of floating C4 Charges in a perfect cube with a ninth in the middle.

"Hmm. Reminds me of my air mine." Indeed Tatsuya's observation was correct, nine charges arranged in a perfect cube that creates a absolute kill zone that can destroy anything within with pin point accuracy. However there was something else going on here as well. "Tuman Bomba." It wasn't accurate to use the name of that strategic class magic. As a start that magic only assembled oxygen and Hydrogen Molecules in the air to create a explosive gas that detonates in a random spread. Instead this went a step further integrating Carbon and Nitrogen molecules as well creating C4 charges. It was a process that required extensive magical script, one that went beyond even the actual Tuman bomber who was a strategic class magician associated with Russia. No what this was taking the actual Strategic class Magician and dramatically augmenting their abilities just like with Misty Lee. "It seems that our enemies are toying with something very dangerous." While Tatsuya made his observations about Igor Leo and he had entered close quarters combat.

"Not so tough now that you can't blow me up eh?" As if to defy his expectations, Igor slammed his foot deep into the ground beneath him, and slammed his fist into the shield that Leo had stolen using the combination of his foothold and undiscovered brute strength to throw Leo away. "Whoa!" Leo looked down at the shield that now had a fist shaped impression on it. "Didn't see that coming."

"Oh! Saijou Leohart who prides himself on his brute strength got out done in a test of muscle!"

Igor raised his gun to launch a counter strike against Leo. Klaud used a combination of the speed and sword card to rush between them and slash the gun in half, she tried to take the shield out too but Igor jumped a good sized distance backwards and followed up by taking out another gun and firing it at Klaud.

"Once again contestant Igor makes use of his mine sweeper attack to great effect! Remember folks that so long as he doesn't kill his opponent and his magic doesn't receive strategic Magi classification then it's perfectly legal!"

This time the balls of clay were produced at random and splattered into the ground. That didn't mean that Klaud wanted to be anywhere near them when they went off so she switched over to the Jump card and went as high into the air as possible. Igor fired another spread of mines into the air, and Masaki followed up by shooting a spread of air bullet at them. The combination of the two magics shot the heaps of clay at Klaud.

"OOH! A splendid combination attack from Third High!"

Klaud used the Shield card to wrap around the enemy projectiles in a barrier causing them to explode harmlessly. Once she knew she wasn't going to be blown up Klaud loaded the arrow card into her C.A.D. and fired a huge barrage of arrow shaped projectiles down at the two Third Highers, and followed that up with the shot card from the side.

"Klaud Reed counters with her own combination of magical attacks! As expected from the 'Swiss Army Knife of First High!'"

"Since when do I have such a Nick name?" Klaud questioned while she fell back to earth.

"Oh Candy Corn!" Masaki politely cursed releasing a huge amount of air bullets to counteract the incoming projectiles, Igor fired off a spread of more C4 and together they eliminated a large number of the projectiles. The Shot card on the other hand was not the type to be hit by such slow moving attacks and weaved through the incoming projectiles.

Masaki fired another air bullet at the pile of shields that were abandoned at the corner of the arena which caused them to go flying through the air. Masaki put the shield he was carrying on his back and grabbed two of the flying shields, granting himself limited three sixty degree's of protection in time for the shot card to bounce off of his shields. Igor followed his lead as the also took two of the shields that were lying on the ground and put his own on his back, granting him the same limited ability to defend against the aggressive bouncing spirit.

"By the looks of things Third High has no other choice but to take a purely defensive stance against first High's assault! How long until Klaud Reed can break through I wonder?"

The shot card swung around to make another hit against Igor.

"Oh no you don't!" Igor raised his shield in it's path covered it with magical smoke, and suddenly the shield exploded when the Shot card hit it, pushing backwards Igor with enough force that he found his arm dislodged from the blast. "OUCH!" Were it not for the last minuet reinforcement magic he applied it would probably be worst.

"Igor counters with a splendid display of his magical ability! It seems that he doesn't just shoots the stuff either!"

"Well now that was impressive." Igor turned around and was immediately greeted by a punch to his face by Leo sending him flying across the arena. "But not impressive enough!" Igor, who was still mostly intact, nailed the landing with a hand stand before collapsing into a crouching position. "Guh. Getting low on Magic, not sure how much longer I can keep this up." Saying that death flag Igor noticed a black shadow rapid expanding around him and immediately ducked for cover, Klaud landing on him and breaking the shield on his back with a combination of the Speed and the Strength cards in the process.

"Okay!" Klaud pointed her sword at Masaki accusingly. "I win!"

"Now Klaud, you know that I don't give up that easily now don't you?" As if defying Masaki's declaration to continue, a loud snap echoed behind him and Masaki saw Leo who was holding the broken halves of his shield. "Oh well played." As Masaki voiced his admiration the buzzer signalling the end of the event sounded.

* * *

As the contestants finished changing Klaud and the others from First High gathered together in their C.A.D. lab in order to assess the situation.

"So we've got one that makes flipping tidal waves!" Klaud explained pinning a picture of Misty Lee to a board. "And another guy who shit's bleeding C4!" Then soon followed a picture of Igor. "If they aren't Super soldiers then somebody up there really doesn't like us!"

The group heard knocking on the door, Leo was being overly suspicious as he opened the door a crack while Tatsuya aimed one of his Silver Horns at the door.

"Klaud your boyfriend's here." Klaud walked up to the door and exited the room.

"Masaki this isn't a good time to talk, we're in the middle of our strategy meeting." Klaud explained crossing her arms and looking at Masaki suspiciously.

"Yah know how you were saying that something was off with Igor?" Masaki asked prompting Klaud to nod. "I've been hanging out with him a lot lately, he's got some... interesting quirks to him."

"Interesting how?" Klaud asked cocking a curious brow at Masaki. "If you let me inside I can show you a few of them." Masaki stated holding up the large bundle of paper work that was in his possession.

"By all means be my guess!" Klaud stated gesturing into the meeting room.

* * *

"So explain to me how this works." A thirteen year old girl who was strapped down to a table in a lab asked nervously as she looked at the frankly terrifying needles that were hanging over her body.

When Mio Itsuki received a call from her superiors about someone who can dramatically augment her physical condition to the point of not only no longer being a cripple but achieving Olympic athlete level results, naturally she pounced on it.

"Firstly, you are given deep muscle and deep bone marrow injections with a formula of my design. The formula contains a mixture of super concentrated nutrients, and a specialized bacteria designed to cutaway the useless parts of your DNA and replace them with examples of the peak of human genetic code. Then you will be bombarded with a type of light wave radiation designed to insure the smooth integration of your new DNA and provide stimulation for the growth of new Muscle tissue." Rebecca stated as she prepared controls on her computer to act.

"Where have I heard that before?" While thinking that the needles slammed into her arms and legs via hydraulic presses and injected their contents into her body. "That wasn't so bad." Mio stated gritting her teeth through the pain.

"I should hope so, that wasn't even the painful part."

"Wha...?" A latch flipped out and stuffed what loosely resembled a rubber squeak toy into her mouth.

"Initiating deep bone marrow injection!" Suddenly a second press jammed the needles into the base of her spine injecting the contents into the deeper part of her bone marrow, making Mio scream and curse in pain through the bit gag unceremoniously jammed into her mouth. "Injections complete." Mio briefly sighed in relief as the needle presses moved away thinking that her torture was over. "Engaging Vita Ray bombardment!" Suddenly a pod slammed shut on Mio who then began screaming as she was hit by blinding amounts of light waves like she was being cooked. The pod opened a few moments later and released Mio from it's holdings who with lack luster enthusiasm slid off of the table, her child sized medical gown now struggling against her adult like features.

"At least I don't have to get stuck with more needles." Suddenly Mio got another needle jammed into her arm by Rebecca.

"That was a stimulant to help you move." Rebecca dragged Mio over and stuck her in a bed. "You can start physical therapy tomorrow. For now there seems to be a little brat running around with all of your little magi tricks, and you are going to tell me everything that you know about her."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

KurobaneYuki: Firstly allow me to welcome you my new reader to my story, it's nice to see that I can still attract people to my little Niche story. Secondly are you sure about that? All of the 'exchange students' seem to be strategic class magicians, now why would a foreign government suddenly unload all of their experimental strategic class magicians into another country? Tatsuya explained Elemental sight to them a while ago, seeing as how they're aware of his other abilities a mere common observation power isn't that much in comparison.

Duked: Obviously. He is aware, ignoring the obvious family resemblance between them he was privy to the top secret project to clone Sakura's brother which resulted in the Yotsuba clan.


	57. Chapter 57

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now, Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 57: Magical Physical Education: Steeple Chase

The event for the third day of the Nine School's competition was called Steeple Chase, derived from the concept of a human Cavalry battle. Which is how Klaud, Leo, Erika and Tatsuya found themselves in the position of Tatsuya, Klaud and Leo all carrying Erika the lightest of the three of them who was also wearing a head band. Making this awkward situation worst, was that they had all been transported to the forest where the ground was rough and uneven, which made the task of moving for the three on the bottom very difficult.

"The Rules for the event is simple! The goal of our participants is to reach the other side of the play area, the forest, while guarding their package, their headbands! If they loose their package they are out! If their formation is broken up they are out! If they fail to exit the forest within the three hour time limit then they are out! If the participants find themselves unable to participate any longer they may resign through the use of the emergency flares on their person!" With the conditions for failing the competition explained the the screen that was giving the audience a areal survey of the forest switched over to a countdown. "Three! Two! One! GO!"

At once Klaud whipped out her staff and slammed the butt of it into the ground. Suddenly the forest started to shake. The tree's suddenly started to grow to a massive size, forming arms, the roots creating bindings as they grabbed hold of the enemy and quickly sunk them into the ground incapacitating them in the process, ordering the branches to take the Head Bands as well.

"As expected, First High starts the match with wide attack on all enemies aiming to crush the competition!" After the last two matches and the year before the audience was already use to Klaud's antics by now.

"Klaud, have we ever told you that you're terrifying?" Leo asked looking at the damage done to the forest.

"All the time." Was Klaud's simple response that was lacking in enthusiasm. "Well now that they know we're taking this seriously we should prepare for the counter strike."

"Counter strike?" As Leo asked that the group was enveloped by two layers of cards from Klaud, a pink Aura from the float card, and a silver one from the shield card.

Thoroughly protected, Klaud had finished preparations in time for the other school's to finish launching their counter strike, the ground rumbled once more but to different effect this time, every tree, every puddle, virtually anything that contained water that was not a person began sinking into the ground crushed under the weight of a invisible force.

"Looks like Misty is at it again." Klaud noted looking at the ground.

"OH Fourth High Launches a devastating counter strike! By the looks of things there's going to be a great many gardeners in our future!" Fourth High wasn't the only one on the offensive though. Klaud used the Windy Card to deflect several balls of clay that had been fired at them back into what was left of the forest before they exploded. "Oh Third High follows up Fourth High's attack with their clay bomb and air bullet combo!"

"Wow they're really coming after us aren't they?" Leo asked looking at the explosions that the clay bombs had created on the ground.

"So lets go after them!" At once Klaud switched from the windy card to the arrow.

Aiming straight up into the sky Klaud fired the magical arrow shaped projectiles into the air and soon it was raining projectiles all over the battle field.

"First High continues to keep up her overwhelming offensive power!" But at that point in time something else was coming down from the sky as well, the dark clouds gathered overhead and discharged lightning, which was rather unfortunate since Klaud and her group were the highest thing in the air. The bolts of lightning came down on them from nine equally spaced points in the sky creating a image similar to tesla coil in the process. "The team from Sixth High puts on a spectacular show as they bombard First High with lightning strikes from nine different directions all at the same time! Forcing First High to go back on the defensive!"

"This has Thunder clap tower written all over it!" Tatsuya stated looking dissatisfied.

Not only was there another Strategic Class weapon at work here, but it would seem that their enemy succeeded where they had failed by truly weaponize the magic that was originally designed to knock out communications by filling the atmosphere with static. Not only that, but near as he could tell they were using a variant of his air mine program that was in a spiral disk shape as oppose to a cube shape, the end result was magic that knocked air born vehicles out of the sky. Not only that, but the combination of intense lightning created a force field as the cloud cover began sinking to the ground.

"What's this? Fourth High and Sixth High have launched a cooperative attack to ground First High!"

Not only that but Klaud also saw that Igor was littering the forest floor with more of his C4 bombs.

"It would seem that our enemy super soldiers have one objective in mind." Klaud noted sweat visible on her brow.

"Take down First High." Tatsuya commented narrowing a glare at their enemies.

"Or take down Klaud." Erika noted a slight shiver in her spine.

"Well what do you guys say? Shall we accept their invitation to dance?" Saying that Klaud switched to another card.

The released spirit absorbed the lightning and took on the form of a giant lightning tiger, which then crashed into the ground and detonated all of the C4 Charges on the ground all at once.

"What...? What is this? First High has absorbed in incoming lightning attacks into one of their familiars and has given birth to a monster on the battlefield!"

"Well now that we have that walking force field we don't need this anymore." Klaud explained as she put the Shield card away. "Instead, how about we liven things up a bit eh?"

Taking the group above the cloud cover as Klaud readied another card to fire, a giant hole opened up in the cloud cover. Suddenly the group started coughing, and Tatsuya was the first to realize why, thanks to his elemental sight.

"Ozone Circle! *cough* *cough* They're trying to poison us!" Tatsuya shouted as he stifled his breath with his hand on his nose.

Klaud held her breath and released the Float card, dropping their group out of the sky, once they could breath again Klaud reactivated the windy card and the group was caught by a mini hurricane.

"Okay. Now it's personal!" Snapping that Klaud spotted more incoming C4 projectiles. Viciously, Klaud pushed the attacking balls of clay back to where they belonged with a blast of air, accelerated their Momentum through the use of the Speed Card. Masaki's group from third high found themselves buried in exploding clay as the group from First high closed in with the Thunder Card backing them up. "Head band now!" Klaud snapped angrily holding out her hand.

Masaki's arm force it's way out of the pile with the head band inside of it and Klaud roughly grabbed it. At that time the electronic sensor in the headband sent a signal to the judging committee showing that Third high had lost.

"Team Third high has been eliminated! What other exciting madness does Team First high intend to unleash next?" As if to answer the question Klaud brought out the watery card next, she unleashed a mighty flood upon the flattened terrain sparring only her team. Misty tried desperately to sink the water into the ground, less it overwhelm both her and her team, but it was just too much. In the end, Klaud's empty hand was soon filled with a second head band. "F-Fourth High has been eliminated! First lightning, then wind and now water!? What other brand of Hell does First High intend to unleash next!?"

"Thunder!" Klaud shouted prompting the giant lightning beast to make it's way over to Klaud. "Find the one that tried to use lightning on you! And when you find them, take this off of them!" Klaud ordered holding up the head band that she had just taken off of Masaki for Thunder to see. Letting out a growl of acknowledgement, Thunder went off into the air and came crashing back down to Earth with a loud boom a couple of miles away.

"T-t-team Sixth High has been eliminated! Medics! We need to get medics down there!"

"That Ozone stuff has gone to your head Klaud." Leo stated a frightened look on his features as he looked off in the direction where the Thunder card had landed. "You want us to take on the last of them?"

"There should only be five enemy teams left, and you've already done most of the work." Erika stated bending over to face Klaud who was the head of their formation.

"Speaking of enemy teams." Tatsuya stated looking off in the distance to see dozens of the enemy teams surrounding them. "Looks like Parade to me. Illusion magic, makes duplicates of the user so that they're harder to hit." Tatsuya explained spotting Harry in the middle of the enemy formation. "I'll take this one."

Stretching out a arm, Tatsuya used elemental sight to calculate the magical formula of Parade, then programmed that information into his Silver horn and a C.A.D. bracelet. The combined magics that both copied Parade formed a nullifying wave that Tatsuya fired at Harry's illusions wiping them out.

"Nice! My turn!" Following up Tatsuya's attack Leo whipped out a gun shape C.A.D. and separated a large portion of it from the rest and flung it at Harry with Anchoring magic with sufficient force to knock him clean off of her their formation. "Team Fifth High has been eliminated!"

"Three left to go." Tatsuya commented before he wiped some sweat off of his brow. "Is it hot all of a sudden to anyone else?" It was at that point in time that Tatsuya noticed a log that had suddenly burst into flames. "Oh Sh..."

Klaud didn't give the group the time to comprehend their incoming barbecuing, at once the group whipped out the inline skates in their boots and Klaud used the speed card to give them a dramatic boost in speed.

"I am getting tired of people trying to kill me today!" Snapping that Klaud fired off another card. The Shot card, being a fire spirit, was immune to the hole that had suddenly been eaten through the Ozone layer and used the heat to give itself a boost in power similar to what Thunder had done earlier. "Find whoever is ripping open the damn atmosphere!"

Saying that the Shot card took it's super heated body and plowed through the area, if the forest wasn't already destroyed beyond recognition Klaud might be a little more concerned about the risk of a forest fire. As it was though the Shot card had already locked on the team from second high.

"Get in close and leave this one to me!" Following Erika's command the group zoomed by Second high and Erika used her baton to smack the 'rider' off of his 'horse.'

"Team Second high has been eliminated! Only three teams are left!"

"Seriously? No one's actually gone to the finish line yet?" Erika asked surprised that no one had seen the obvious way to win, not to mention been scared off in pure terror of them yet.

"Let's take advantage. Shot!" At Klaud's command the speedy spirit started moving along side it's master's group, now that the Ozone wasn't opening up and trying to kill them it was much easier to hold a civil conversation. "There's two other groups in this mess, hunt them like dogs!" At Klaud's command the shot card sped off and two explosions soon ensued.

"Teams Seventh and Eight High have been eliminated! FIRST HIGH TAKES FIRST!"

* * *

"Ah... ah eh..." Makoto had been left stunned open mouth in full fly catcher mode while he stared at the ruined battlefield. He wasn't surprised at the devastation, with the sheer number of Strategic class Magicians down there that was only to be expected. No what was shock worthy was that the specialized 'Anti-Kinomoto' team put together to take down Klaud and her family had just been stopped dead in their tracks.

"Don't look at me for sympathy." Retsu Kudou stated standing up. "You brought her here, you sicced strategic class magicians on her, what ever she does here is entirely on your head." Saying that Retsu left the VIP Room for elsewhere.

* * *

"You have a strange idea of a date yah know that right Klaud?" Masaki stated sitting down on the other side of a picnic blanket provided by Klaud.

"What's wrong with it?" Klaud asked holding up a little triangle sandwich. "Checker blanket, goofy triangle sandwiches, cranberry juice..."

"Carnage." Masaki stated gesturing to the battle field where a dozen strategic class magicians had rampaged freely. "Lots and lots of Carnage."

"Do you want to go back to the vultures?" Klaud asked gesturing to another direction. "Cause they'll be plenty more carnage over there than here."

After the little rampage Klaud went on reporters descended upon the area, more than a few of them Klaud suspected weren't reporters but rather individuals who were intent to knock Klaud out and have her wake up with bits of her body missing. At least that was the atmosphere they were giving off. Or it could just be stories about her great uncle playing tricks on her.

"Hence why you volunteered to clean up the forest." Masaki noted gesturing to the area around him.

"Hence why I said I needed help a little bit of time to rest." Klaud added looking at the giant hole in the sky where fire was raining down.

"If it wasn't for Madison lining our uniforms with Graphene the four of us would be roasted walnuts by now." Klaud explained leaning on Masaki for a little bit of support. If Masaki's hopeful girlfriend wanted a little bit of emotional support from him he wasn't going to argue. "Somebody is toying with something very dangerous. This wasn't even suppose to be a fighting event, they sent those things after us, after me." Klaud squeezed Masaki's hand a little bit tighter. "I want blood. I want to know who has been toying me and I want their blood!"

"Anything I can do to help?" Masaki asked rubbing soothing circles into Klaud's back.

"How much does Igor trust you?" Klaud asked cocking a suspicious brow at Masaki.

"Enough that I feel confident asking a favor in return." As Masaki said that he placed his cell phone down on the blanket, blaring classical music, and held out his hand expectantly towards Klaud. "Care to dance Milady? You still owe me a date, and you weren't at the reception either."

"I wasn't feeling well." Klaud said taking Masaki's hand and using him to pull herself up.

"Car sick?" Masaki asked cocking a suspicious brow at his dance partner as they moved in sync, Masaki taking the liberty of twirling Klaud around.

"Air sick." Klaud replied as Masaki bent her over backwards in his arms.

"On a bus?" Masaki asked as he pulled Klaud back up.

"On a griffin." Nodding his head in understanding the two spent a good chunk of the day dancing together.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Duked: Contrary to popular belief, when a woman refuses a man's advances as it were, they are not play 'hard to get' they are saying no. Hence now Masaki has someone who doesn't mind being chased.


	58. Chapter 58

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say right now, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 59: Magical Physical Education: Pillar Break 2

Pillar Break, finally they were met with a returning challenge from the previous year. The goal many people were familiar with. Of course, after the past three events in which many faced near death three times in as many days they were threatening to go home right now if they were to be put at risk again. Even so, many people's eyes were nervously directed towards the girl who had been stuffed into a red and yellow clown costume, and it wasn't just because it looked hideous.

"Good day ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Fourth day of the Nine School's competition!" The screens flashed forward show casing the scores from the previous two games. Now that people had calmed down Shield Down had been finished, Steeple Chase on the other hand had been given a severe re-writing of the rules in light of the rampage made against Klaud that nearly caught the entire participating students in the cross fire. As such Shield down that was delayed do to the rattled students by Igor had been delayed to yesterday displayed its scores, and Steeple Chase that had it's entire playing field declared a disaster area still hadn't completed it's rookie event yet.

"It wasn't your fault Klaud." Miyuki, dressed in a Yukataka, stated walking up behind Klaud.

"I know. But it was somebody's fault." Klaud stated picking out a certain collection of foreigners among the contestants. In response those that Klaud were singling out shrunk away in fear, trying to make themselves smaller or trying to hide behind their classmates. "I am getting sick and tired of people trying to kill me."

A dozen stages had been prepared for the Ice pillar contestants to participate on. Klaud looked across from her at her opponent, Misty Lee who looked back at her nervously. Klaud looked next to her where Miyuki was preparing to face off against another one of the foreigners, if Klaud's memory served it was the one who tried to roast her using a hole in the Ozone layer. It would appear that Klaud would not be able to exact personal revenge on all of her enemies today.

"The Rules of Pillar break are simple, each contestant is given six pillars of ice, the goal of the contestants is to destroy the enemy pillars while protecting their own. First to lose all of their pillars loses."

On that note half a dozen pillars of blue ice appeared on each of the playing fields. Klaud narrowed a glare at Misty, and Miyuki did the same with her opponent. After all her brother was on that field right next to Klaud when her current opponent decided to try and roast Klaud alive. Miyuki would be getting revenge here today too. With that the ceremonial countdown began.

"3! 2! 1! GO!"

Miyuki's opponent tore another hole in the atmosphere and tried to melt Miyuki's pillars with concentrated rays of unfiltered sun light. Miyuki's response was to use her Inferno magic to transfer large portions of the unfiltered heat over to her opponents area. The clash of ice cold and fiery heat was wreaking havoc on the playing field creating a tornado that had picked up both participants ice pillars and flinging them around the area, smashing them against each other as Misty was threatened to be sucked inside.

"A clash of high level magics! The playing field is being ripped apart! Somebody stop them before they hurt themselves!"

"Well they're being noisy aren't they?" Saying that Klaud loaded up the fire card and took aim at her own field. With three shots Klaud commanded the fire card to heat the ice pillars up until they exploded. "And for my encore." Klaud loaded the Windy card and fired it into the heart of the storm, the sudden release of hyper concentrated wind pressure harmlessly neutralized the storm and flung the smashed up ice chunks to the wind. "That is what you call a tie." Klaud's stunned opponent turned away from the chaos Miyuki and her opponent unleashed on the battle field and looked in Klaud's direction, spotting Klaud's pillars, and the smoking craters that was all that was left of her's. "And this is my win. Next time keep a eye out on your own playing field."

"Miyuki of First high and Melinda Saxe tie! Klaud Reed Defeats Misty Lee of Fourth High!"

The first two Matches had ended, Klaud received instruction through her Tournie assigned C.A.D. to return to the playing field in approximately forty minuets.

"I could use a drink." Saying that Klaud went over to the concession stand near the playing field.

A large number of goers were gathered there, though as soon as she touched down a mysterious path had formed. Taking it for the blessing for what it was Klaud walked up to the guy at the front counter and ordered a large soda and jumbo popcorn.

"You make a impression where ever you go love." Masaki stated walking up behind Klaud.

"I would stow talk like that if I was you." Klaud stated pointing to a camera a fair distance away from them aimed in their general direction. "My sisters are known for being rather over protective." So much so that when Rebecca had to wipe out a team of Russian hit men Rebecca roped a bunch of fishermen into taking a eight year old Klaud out on a eight month long fishing expedition just so that she wouldn't have to worry about them trying to hurt her while she exterminated them like a bunch of rats. "You wouldn't last the night."

"If they're anything like you I believe that." Masaki stated laughing nervously at Klaud.

"I am but a hatchling in comparison to my sisters." Klaud stated stifling a nervous chuckle. "If it had been Maylin up there then there would be a huge smoking crater where a playing field should be right now."

"Even so surely they would approve of their little sister finding true love." Masaki stated faking a swoon to emphasize his point.

"We've barely seen each other since the thesis competition Masaki, technically speaking we've only had our third date yesterday, and that's only if you count hunting Chinese thugs together as a date. And it's not just for me that they're concerned for. Every Cell in your body is patented, if we did have a child, the act of making one I know is on your mind based on the lecherous grin you keep shooting me, somebody might get it in their head that he or she is their property." That wiped the smirk off of Masaki's face.

"Sounds like I need to have a word with my relatives. But not today. After you're done annihilating the competition you wanna go hang out?" Masaki asked indicating the forest that Klaud had assigned the wood card the task of restoring.

"Hmm. Somewhere public, and where my sisters won't fly off the handle with Paranoia and stuff me into a chastity belt." Klaud stated tapping her finger on her chin.

"Another excellent idea. Which reminds me." Masaki fished around his pockets and eventually pulled out a small ring box. "For you milady."

Klaud took the ring box and opened it. Showing a Million watt Grin Klaud leaned over and pecked Masaki on his cheek. Klaud ran off at the sound of a bell signalling the start of the next match for Ice Pillar and left a stunned Masaki behind. Klaud arrived back at the competing area in time to give Tatsuya the ring box on her way by. Tatsuya opened the box and revealed a small vial with a bit of drool in the bottom. Drool that if Masaki's claims that 'Igor drools in his sleep' are true means that they might have a valuable clue about their enemy.

"I'm going to get your C.A.D. ready for the next round." Leaving that line to Kanon Tatsuya rushed to his laboratory where he took the vial Masaki had collected into his computer and began punching in numbers. When Tatsuya was done his analysis on the sample he found that it was familiar, disturbingly familiar.

"Master." Pixie was standing behind him, and standing behind her was a familiar blonde foreigner. "This lady says she has a appointment with you?"

"Do you have the intel we asked for about the American foreigners?" Tatsuya asked brow raised in the air.

"I'm the only American here." Angie stated in a dissatisfied tone of voice.

"Excuse me?" Tatsuya asked cocking a brow.

"The man calls down flipping lightning from the sky did you really think we would've let him leave the country?" Angie asked in a almost shout.

"That's what I was afraid of." Angie handed Tatsuya a disk, through which he confirmed that the American exchange student participating in the NSC didn't exist up until a couple weeks ago. Right after the Nine Master Clan's conference.

"Looks like your government has been hiding the existence of strategic class Magicians even more top secret then you." Angie commented with forced calm and a hint of fear.

"Oh I wish that was the case, that would be infinitely less horrifying then what I just found out." Tatsuya stated gesturing to the screen with a DNA chart mapped out on it.

"I don't read nerd Tatsuya, what is it?" Angie stated looking at the DNA chart. "What are they clones?"

"They're not human." Tatsuya stated prompting Angie to look at him surprised. "Say wha...?" Angie asked looking confused and on top of that very scared. "This DNA sample, taking from the saliva of Igor for Third High, is a match for the Psion Bio Fuel that I created, the same brand of Bio Fuel that I use to power Pixie."

"Excuse me? The android can use magic?" Tatsuya gestured to Pixie, who had created a magic circle in her palm and blasted the resulting gust of air into the ground, blowing Angie's skirt up in the process. "Of course it can." Angie stated as if the result should be obvious. "How?"

"The Parasites." Tatsuya replied causing Angie to glare angrily at him.

"So, my government isn't allowed to experiment with the use of Parasites, but it's okay if it's you and yours?" Angie asked glaring at Tatsuya in annoyance.

"I was creating a non-human experimental test subject in the field of reprogramming a brain's capacity for magic." Tatsuya stated looking at Angie with a glare. "This is a attempt to mass produce monsters and I guarantee you I had no part in it."

"No, just your technology." Angie stated paying Pixie a poignant glance.

"Believe you me, I will reclaim my stolen technology, all of it, and then I and the makers of these contraptions will have words." Tatsuya stated letting out a ominous phrase. As he said that, he noticed noise coming from the little TV screen he had in his lab, announcing another individual crushed beneath Klaud's heel. "Come, it is time to bring Klaud and my sister in on what we know."

* * *

"Androids?" The First High group, plus Masaki and Angie, were gathered together on a picnic blanket taking advantage of the fact that everyone was behind Klaud to make a quick snack break. The Silence card already been deployed to dispose of any annoying paparazzo or spy who might see this occasion as a opportunity, and the thunder card had taken care of any electronic surveillance on them. "They're androids? That would explain how Igor won that Arm wrestling match against Saijou."

"Don't remind me." Immediately after Steeple Chase, Saijou walked up and challenged Igor to a arm wrestling match, and now Saijou's arm was in a sling.

"We did some tests, Pixie can use all the same kinds of magics that Michaela could use as well as my elemental sight." To re-emphasize his point Pixie made a magic circle in her hand that produced a bolt of lightning. "If they are able to harvest Psions from strategic class magicians and process that into new parasites, we think they can impart upon them the same kind of magics." A task that would be as easy as retrieving a blood sample from the magician in question. "There's more, we looked into various companies that deal in the construction of androids." Tatsuya laid down a folder containing his research notes. "2000 pounds in Vanadium Oxide, ten graphene full body armors, a dozen large canisters of artificial skin substitute, two dozen pounds of C.A.D. artificial synapses, and roughly a hundred founds of aquatic fertilizer primed for processing into Psion Fuel all to one location."

"Vanadium oxide?" Erika asked looking confused.

"Most powerful artificial muscle fiber in the world, approximately one thousand times stronger than human muscle." Tatsuya explained casually inducing a sense of terror in his compatriots.

"Well that would explain it." Leo stated nodding his head as if something suddenly started to make sense to him.

"And we all know how effective Graphene is for body armor." Erika commented recalling the Generator that shrugged off a hit from Inari's solar beam attack.

"All of that with the power of a Strategic class magician super charged by parasites and multiplied by ten." Klaud stated in all but a growl. "So then, who wants to go and find out who is responsible for making the things that are trying to kill us this time?"


	59. Chapter 59

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say right now, sorry. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 59: Mirage Bat 2

The Game this time around was Mirage Bat, Klaud's latest costume was best summarized as 'Fairy Court Jester' a look that was rather inappropriate considering the glare that was down right nasty that she was giving to other participants in the round. A nasty glare that had been justified in Klaud's mindset, when you consider that a few of these people tried to kill her the other day, hit her with lightning, roast her with a hole in the ozone, tried to plaster her with explosives, just to name a few of the offensives they've leveled against her. The fact that a large number of these offenses involved extremely potent anti-air magic and she was now in a air born dog fight did not help. Her one saving grace was that they weren't aloud to actually go after each other unlike in the other events. Which was also rather fortunate for them, when you consider the fact that since they were androids she was a lot less inclined to hold back against them.

"Don't be nervous." Miyuki had sneaked up behind her and grabbed hold of Klaud's shoulder in a reassuring way. "We won't let them hurt you."

"It's not me that I'm worried about." Klaud mentioned casting a suspicious glare around the contestants. "You gonna be okay? I saw what these people are capable of Miyuki."

"So have I, of the two of us who do you think they should be more scared of?" Miyuki asked smirking at Klaud who could only shake her head.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

The scores from the Steeple Chase events finally came, the impressive display of power having caused the rookies to almost quit in protest. Hence the delay. Well, they'd just have to make up for during the Monolith code events, unlike the free for all style of the other events Monolith code necessitated a more tournament style approach, one that would last several days. With Monolith code going on in one block the contestants from the terrorized blocks could compete once they had a chance to calm down.

"We apologize for the Delay." The announcer's voice echoed across the stadium getting the attention of audience and competitor alike. "As a start in light of the innovations in technology made in the past year new rules have been implemented." The screen changed to show silhouetted demonstration of the basics of magic flight technology. "All of the competitors have been given flight C.A.D's, each of which has had a limiter placed on it so that they can only fly for short periods of time." Given the gluttonous nature of the devices, most average magicians couldn't keep up, a survey of the competitors had determined the average psion count and by extension average time of sustained flight. This was the limit that the contestants could stay in the air using flight magic, in accordance with the built in fail safe programmed into the C.A.D's themselves. "Also the judging committee, audience, contestants and a number of other concerned parties has asked us to remind all of you that Mirage bat is a strict non contact sport, and that failure to obey this rule will be strictly penalized."

Suddenly, and not too coincidentally, Klaud felt all eyes on her, both the audience and the other contestants.

"What?" Klaud asked looking around.

"You do have a history." Miyuki commented in a sympathetic voice with her hand on her shoulder. Specifically, a history of launching preemptive strikes that both secured her victory and destroying her opponents in one fell swoop.

"I'll behave if they do!" Klaud stated indicating the android opponents.

"The goal of the contenders remain the same, each school has a color, the goal of the contenders is to hit the targets belonging to their school within the time limit, the individual to hit the most goal points wins!" The earlier diagram was replaced by another count down. "3! 2! 1!"

* * *

Makoto breathed a sigh of relief, at least this one they wouldn't have to worry about a large scale panic from Klaud. Then the pillar in front of Makoto turned to smoke.

"Whose responsible for the androids?" Makoto got up and spun around gun that was in his holster pointed accusingly towards the one standing behind him, then he realized who it was, Tatsuya Yotsuba, alias Tatsuya Shiba, alias Ryuuya Ooguro strategic class magician with a predisposition for taking things apart on a molecular level. "I will not ask again, who is responsible for the walking weapons of mass destruction down there!?"

"Makoto, it's time for the adults to talk, leave us." Retsu stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

"But father...!"

"LEAVE!" Retsu barked in response to his son's pleads. "You've caused enough damage these past few days!" Makoto left, allowing Tatsuya the chance to sit down in his place.

"So he's the one who had the bright idea to try and duplicate strategic class magicians and super charge them with pison parasites and android bodies." Tatsuya noted keeping his C.A.D and tungsten silencer trained on Retsu.

"How did you know the Kudou clan were involved?" Retsu asked cocking a suspicious brow at the walking weapon of mass destruction before him.

"Harry has Parade, the only not strategic class magic among them. Your son couldn't resist including his clan's own prided power among those that can sink fleets and wipe out army's in one fell swoop, could he?" Tatsuya asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Retsu.

"He does have a habit of overstepping his boundaries, a concept you should be aware of, after all if I recall correctly it was you who created the original method to bond a parasite to a mechanical body." Retsu stated watching Klaud zoom around the field.

"Klaud Reed makes ingenious use of the outdated jump magic in combination with the flight magic!"

"She really is terrifying." Retsu commented observing as the other contestants desperately running around. "We shackle her, she picks the lock and flaunts her broken chains in our faces."

"Is that why you're doing this? You're scared of her because you can't control her?" Tatsuya questioned in a serious tone of voice.

"Allow me to make a few things clear. The first, is that I am not responsible for this folly: the abominations down there are little else than a collection of bad ideas assembled by my son." Retsu explained in a firm tone of voice hoping to convey just how strongly he disapproved of these 'abominations' as he called them.

"What kind of bad ideas?" Tatsuya asked glaring suspiciously.

"Your method required the use of a empath, and that the android would retain the emotions of the empath used in the process. Makoto thought it was a good idea to employ one that was suffering from post traumatic stress." That fact shocked Tatsuya. "Ensure that the androids would be battle ready as soon as possible, as if the shear power of your 'psion fuel' and the strategic class magicians whose power he has stolen wasn't enough."

"Which explains why they look so high strung, all of the trauma with none of the memory, seeing ghosts that they don't recognize every where they go." Tatsuya stated scratching his chin thought.

"And here they are in the middle of their field test proving that they are indeed not enough for the task that they are to be assigned." Retsu stated gesturing down below.

"What are you talking about? Each one of them is a terror easily capable of taking down a army." Retsu took a moment to seriously look at Tatsuya before something clicked inside of his head. "It's not a army they're designed to take on is it?" Tatsuya asked realization to that exact question hitting him.

"Klaud Reed and Miyuki Shiba are the winners!"

"That idiot son of yours is going after her family isn't he?" Tatsuya asked fully aware of who the her that they were talking about.

"He's always been more of 'fight' then 'flight' type of person." At around that moment Retsu regretted not having a bottle of something on hand to drink, something to dent the memory of what he was about to recount. "To be fair I use to be a fight type as well, I'm more of a flee person now. Either that or freeze."

"I sense that there's a reason for this sudden change?" Tatsuya asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"I met Klaud's mother." Retsu stated in a tone that was deeply full of remorse. "When the third world war started, the government started looking for a unlimited supply of magician DNA among their ranks. My family, are what you would call 'natural magicians' meaning that until the war we had no genetic engineering in our systems, a rarity, I never thought I would meet another family like us, let alone one that was stronger." As if making a point, Retsu held his leg out in front of Tatsuya, and pulled up his pant leg to reveal wood hidden underneath. "Seeing Maylin's mother for the first time was like a god send, with a single wave of her staff she pushed back all the invading fleets. I asked her on the spot to join our special projects division, she refused, her goal was to save lives not take them. But it wasn't hard to track down her family, her brother included. She wasn't quite so paranoid back then, that I'm afraid was my doing."

"And then the government did to him what they did to you." Tatsuya mentioned already aware of what they had done to Tori.

"Me, my family, and their father's corpse once they dug him up all combined. Sakura was not happy." Retsu stated his grip on his cane tightening up.

"I will stop this little project you know." Tatsuya stated in a serious tone of voice.

"Good. Here I am trying to put a end to magicians as a weapon on the battle field and here is my idiot son trying to roll out the next model." Retsu stated a fair amount of relief in his voice.

"You're not afraid of the consequences for your clan?" Tatsuya asked suspiciously, he was taking a while, everyone was already getting ready for the Mirage Bat Rookie event.

"I retired as clan head a long time ago, conveniently enough, Makoto is bound and determined to offer himself up as a scapegoat, as he should." Retsu stated looking down at the match went underway. "All that is left to do is wait for this little project to fail spectacularly and we can end this nonsense. Assuming that is he doesn't try any thing else spectacularly stupid." Retsu commented his attention on the field.

"I'll leave you to it then." Tatsuya stated as he left the VIP section. "Everyone, team meeting!"

* * *

Klaud and Masaki were the last of the two to arrive inside of the locker room.

"Uh hey guys..." Klaud was greeted by several stares going her way from her team mates. "Guys I know that there was a team meeting called but I had to get changed. You didn't expect me stay dressed as a clown all day did you?" It was then that Klaud noticed that they weren't angry, they were concerned. "What is it? What's wrong?" After a long and unecessarily drawn out conversation the group eventually explained to Klaud Tatsuya's intelligence concerning the parasites and who was making them.

"Oh when I get my hands on that wrinkly old Geezer!" Klaud snapped as she began pacing back and forth throughout the locker room.

"Cool your guns Klaud." Miyuki stated her hand on Klaud's shoulder.

"He chopped up my uncle! And that son of a gun got the balls to claim that he was the victim in this!?" Klaud pulled her shoulder away from Miyuki as she leveled a glare at the direction of the VIP sweet. "That my family is dangerous!? Guess what: we would stop coming out and rearing our ugly heads if they would just leave us alone!"

"Klaud Calm down!" Tatsuya growled in a warning tone of voice.

"Why should I!?" Klaud snapped glaring at Tatsuya a fiery light burning in her eyes.

"Because if you don't then you'll only play into their hands, now calm down!" To Tatsuya's words Klaud did indeed calm herself down. "Understand something, They've all but lost, their little pets are meant to be better than you and they are failing. All that's left is the clincher, Monolith code, the straight up head to head fight to the finish, no cheats, no run around's, us vs them and we win they're finished! Done! Gone! For good!"


	60. Chapter 60

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, haven't had any from this one in a while. I'm thinking of just finishing up the plot line with the parasites and moving on to something new. Anyone have a problem with that, lemme know. In the mean time, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 60: Magical Physical Activity: Monolith Code 2 Round 1

Monolith Code, the Final of the six events for the NSC, Klaud looked to the score boards, the tallies from the other rounds were coming in. Basically, Klaud crushed the competition in the events that she'd participate in. In compensation for that, in the rookie and co-op events the other school's fought harder, and although First High had been supported by the high quality and skilled workmanship of Tatsuya and his team of hand picked engineers, they also suffered severe losses, so there was a still a chance that they would lose the competition overall. Not that the three of them were gathered here on this battle field this day for something as petty as winning or losing a tournament of all things. No this was war, with life or death stakes on the line on top of that. Klaud was dressed in what passed for military garb with her clownish looks, purple and black strips went up and down her chest armor, thick kevlar around her legs gave the illusion of comically baggy pants, with suspends filled with Rebecca's contraptions attached to suspenders going over her shoulders. The final touch, Klaud's crystal cut face mask, black eyes and lips painted on the white surface.

Point of interest, thanks to Madison's antics everyone seemed to have the impression that Klaud actually liked clowns, and thus the outside of Klaud's hotel room had been transformed into a terrifying nightmarish place of stuffed plush toys and gift baskets. On Klaud's instruction Tatsuya had transported all such 'gifts' to several children's charities and hospitals across Japan. Of course when Klaud's adoring public found out about this, it only made them love her all the more, and by extension caused them to do it all the more. Eventually, Klaud just resorted to camping out in the locker room with Pixie, Sapphire and Inari staying guard.

"When this is over, remind me to destroy Madison." Klaud stated her eye twitching with a mad gleam and giving off thick black aura that was making 'Gogogogogogo' noises.

"Wow the boss lady is scary when she's mad!" Leo commented stepping away from Klaud.

"She's had a rough couple of days between her adoring public and these super soldiers." Tatsuya commented casually letting out a sigh. "Well in any case she's likely to turn that burning passion into havoc being reeked upon our opponents."

And what opponents they had indeed, First high vs. Third high, clearly the organizers of the tournament intended to go full throttle from the start and hoped to carry that momentum all the way to the final round. After all the Nine School's competition was a multi-million dollar event, with broadcasting companies competing in a all out bidding war to claim the coveted right to broadcast the games in their home and native land. And that was four years ago, before First high started it's legendary winning streak. Now it was threatening to push the profit margins into the billions.

"All this trouble we go to avoid war..." Klaud commented looking at the news crews that looked ready to rip each other apart.

"And they get ready to start one." Tatsuya commented eyes trailing off from the aura of intense blood lust that was coming off of the crowd in waves.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We apologize for the minor delay! But now our break down of Monolith code." The blimp mounted big screen switched over to a crude diagram of a battle field depicting two teams of three and a pillar on either side. "To win, either team must either A enter a thousand digit code into the opposing team's monolith or B defeat all three members of the opposing team." The diagram was replaced by the tournament brackets. "There will be three rounds of Monolith code, the worst performing team, eighth high, has graciously decided to drop out of the final events citing 'physical and Emotional trauma.'" Klaud felt her teammates eyes on her at this. "Each round will be held in one of four environments." The first image to grace the screen was a abandoned town. "Urban." The second image was of a familiar woodland environment. "Forest." The third a large grassy field. "Open Field." And finally a large sandy area. "And finally Desert." This also meant that they could hold four matches at once. Which was a unfortunate but necessary evil as they were playing catch up right now. "These Four area's will serve as a field of battle for of competitors. And now we turn our attention to the Grassy plains where The match up of the season is awaiting." The screen switched to a split screen image of Team First High and Team Third high. "The rematch between Last year's champions First High and the Runner up Third High!" Saying that, The screen switched over one final time, this time to a countdown starting at three. "3. 2. 1. GO!"

At once Masaki spotted a sight that was essentially a huge Tatsuya, his target of choice for the evening. Of course he knew that it was Klaud's illusion magic at work, but that was not the point here.

"Hmm. Looks like they're trying to flush us out. What do you think Igor?" Masaki asked turning his head to face his nervous teammate.

"Kl-Kl-Klau!" Was Igor's nervous response to Masaki's prodding.

"Good point. It might be her going after you instead." Towards this end Masaki took a look through specialized Binoculars to the air, where he saw Klaud flying through the air using a pair of giant wings. "Nope I was right the first time." Suddenly Masaki grabbed hold of Igor and pushed him forward. "You and her have a appointment to keep." Masaki explained taking out his own Gun C.A.D. and aiming it directly at the back of Igor's head. "Walk."

"Masaki are you nuts the plan was...!?"

"I said walk." Masaki stated completely discarding his joking tone of voice. "I know what you are, and I know why you were made. Walk, or I will pop you like the blighted zit you are, and then the people who made you are going to have a very hard time explaining to the public what I splattered all over these grassy fields." To Masaki's serious tone of of voice Igor whipped out his own gun type weapon and nervously aimed it at Masaki's forehead, the weapon shaking all the while. "Oh really 'Super Soldier...'" Masaki put down his own weapon and pressed his forehead to the weapon. "Do I look like I'm scared of you and your little toy?"

"I hate to interrupt but." Suddenly a rectangular block of metal came in and gut shot Igor lifting him into the air. The one responsible none other than Leo who was sitting down behind Masaki grinning devilishly.

"Of course you do realize I'm going to have to take you out?" Masaki mockingly asked.

"You do realize that there's a angry sniper barreling down on your position right?" Was Leo's overly snarky reply.

And it was true, while Masaki was distracted by Leo Tatsuya was running at him at full speed.

"Good point. Wait if he's over there how did you...?" To Masaki's question, Leo was suddenly replaced by a Card which then flew off to Klaud. "Illusions my sweet? That's not like you."

While Masaki prepared for the show down between him and Tatsuya Igor was still flying along the battle field being pushed by Leo's C.A.D. before that is he was shot out of the sky by the shot Card and hit the ground with sizable force, leaving behind a deep impact crater.

"Hello Klaud." Igor commented looking up at Klaud who was looming over him. "So you found out our little secret did you?" Unharmed by Leo's and Klaud's little combination attack Igor sat up straight and looked up at his opponent. "I don't have anything against you personally yah know."

"I am taking this personally, but not against you." Klaud admitted letting out a sigh through her mask. "Your boss on the other hand, he I have a rather sizable grudge against."

"Well I suppose that I should be relieved." Igor stated letting out a sigh. "Truth be told I was born terrified of you, me and the others that is. The empath that they used to make us suffers from PTSD, but we got his emotions not his memories, so they filled in those gaps with you and your family. I'm getting all sorts of nasty images in my mind just sitting here and talking to you."

"You're very brave to talk about it." Klaud admitted smiling bitterly. "When I was very little... I watched both of my parents die in a fire, the ones raising me right now are my grandparents. I blocked it out, so I was jumping at the littlest things for a few years, still do too, and had no idea why until what happened was explained to me around this time last year." Klaud explained crouching down and giving Igor a sympathetic look. "My point is. Talking does help."

"Wow. That's messed up. I mean, with us we know that it's just a simulation, I mean everything that goes on up here is wires and machinery." Igor explained gesturing to his temple. "But you? Just... wow."

"We're all machines Igor, we're just made out of different raw materials." Klaud stated letting out a bitter laugh. "But, those guys who made you? They don't sound very nice. If you or the others are ever put into a bad spot and need to get away from them, my family has been hiding out where no one can get to us for the past hundred years."

"You'd do that for us?" Igor asked hope on his features.

"It's what we've been doing for people who've needed our help for the past hundred years." Klaud stated letting out a warm smile. "But I am going to have to ask you a favor." Klaud explained putting her mask back on. "As you are, you are a threat to my family, even if you surrendered here today, they would just go on to make another one, only the next one will be more like the generators used by the Chinese, emotionless killing machines that cannot be reasoned with. So before I whisk you away to safety, I need you to help me dismantle the super solider project from within." As they say, a kingdom that falls to it's enemies may rise again, but a kingdom that collapses from within will never see the light of day. "I need you, to come after me with everything you have, and prove once and for all that in any all such 'ideas' against my family are little else than what they are: pointless wasted efforts."

Igor gulped nervously as he looked up at Klaud. Credit where credit was do: The lady does know how to give a speech.

"Okay."

Was Igor's nervous response as he got up to his feet. A burst of wind magic from Klaud separated the two of them. Igor whipped out his own C.A.D.'s and began randomly firing chunks of C4 at Klaud. Klaud turned her Gun into staff form and used wind magic to whip the clay balls away, but noticed that eight of the balls weren't moving, and had instead formed around her in a perfect cube.

"Damn!"

Realizing the use of Tuman Mine as Tatsuya had dubbed it Klaud equipped the jump card to her feet and took into the air. Unfortunately she realized too soon that the mines were following her, having been attached to her via anchoring magic and exploded before she could erect the shield card to protect herself they all exploded.

"Did I hit her too hard?"

A orange light flickered through Klaud briefly, though most wouldn't have noticed, and even fewer would be able to deduce what happened, it was the work of the time card reverting Klaud's broken body into a earlier version of itself. Back on her feet as it were Klaud produced a set of huge wings from her back and started to close the distance with Igor using the speed card.

"Uh oh!"

Once again Igor rapid fired projectiles at Klaud. Klaud had learned from her mistakes the last time. She was moving too fast for Igor's random spread of attacks to hit her effectively, and she had already brought out the sword card to hack away at the anchoring lines between her and the explosives. Thus the battle between Klaud and Igor was dangerously close to breaking out into close quarters melee, but at the last moment Igor was grabbed by wind magic and pulled backwards.

"Hmm. Cardinal George." Klaud commented looked off in the distance and seeing George pulling Igor away using wind Magic. "Leo. Take. Him. Down!"

* * *

"Got Cha boss lady!" Following Klaud's instructions, Leo pulled out the card Klaud had given before the fighting started and sunk enough psions into it to activate it.

With Tatsuya going after Masaki, and Klaud gunning after Igor, that left Leo to tackle George. In order to make up for the huge difference in ability that exists between George and Leo, Leo would have to specifically target George's weakness, namely his magic that relies on his ability to accurate see his opponent and gauge their position. Which is the reason why Leo found himself encased in a thick fog of darkness, courtesy of the shadow card. Leaving George stunned, Leo embedded his distance C.A.D. deep into the ground and used that to pull himself forward. George could not use his ace technique 'invisible bullet' without a direct line of sight to his target, and thus his only choice would be to use that same ability to run away as quickly as he could. Because of that he could no longer support Igor who was being chased around by Klaud.

* * *

" _Well that's fine I guess. I ain't all about magic, and if I go after her with half ass ability her plan won't work._ "

With that Igor sunk as much strength as he could into his legs, briefly made a magic square around him that was purely cosmetic, and jumped several hundred feet into the air away from Klaud. Sinking as much magic as he could in front of him, Igor produced a giant mass of C4 between him and Klaud.

"Bang!"

This time Klaud was prepared for Igor's explosions, and equipped the shield card, along with the twin card and the mirror card producing three layers of shields in front of her as the giant mass of C4 Detonated.

"Let's get out of here!"

Even so, Klaud did not hold any delusions of being able tank such a blast, therefore her best hope would be to fly away as fast as possible, in order to reduce the impact of the blast, letting the explosive force behind her push.

" _Oi. Five cards at once. My magic reserves are gonna be eaten alive at this rate._ " Towards this situation Klaud removed one of the canisters on her person. " _Good thing I brought spares._ "

Klaud took the Canister and attached it to a slot on her staff, the two humming to life as the massive supply of psions and pushions inside of the canister gave the five cards a boost in power that allowed them to get past the enemy power to safety. The only flaw with Psion fuel was it's inability to actually store magical power, or at least in sufficient quantities that it would be practical on the battle field. Insert the specialized Oopart given to Four Leaves technology, a item with the capacity to store huge amounts of magical power and retain it for a absurd period of time. Not that Tatsuya knew how to produce such a item, that honor belonged only to Klaud's family, specifically her technological and magical genius sister Rebecca. Igor on the other hand wasn't doing so good. On top of having burned through what was likely his entire supply of Magical power, he was also caught up in blast from his own attack, which even with his specialized body that was made from absurdly durable material, still took a sizable hit and he was now cartwheeling through the air. Klaud ejected the spent canister and loaded another one as she chased Igor down and narrowly caught him before his body hit the ground.

"Ugh! You may be tough but boy you're heavy!" Klaud flew over the medical tent that was currently staffed by Rebecca and her minions. And good thing too, when you consider the layer of artificial skin covering his body had been burned off exposing metal muscles and black armor beneath.

"Ivan, get to work!" Rebecca barked to the burly looking young man next to her.

Tatsuya vs Masaki and George vs Leo looked to be even matches, Tatsuya chased after Masaki, Masaki ran away, Leo chased after George, George ran away. Both fights were slowly but surely steering into the direction of First High's Monolith, clearly her opponents were trying to be sneaky about winning, just not very well, as made evident by how her opponents cleverly corralled their foes that were clearly trying to avoid them back towards their territory.

"Not today boys and girls!" Klaud landed on the ground in front of the Monolith and shot it with a burst of magic.

After a few minuets the upload was completed and the event was won by First High.

* * *

"Jeez you guys are merciless." Masaki commented scratching the back of his head.

After the match both teams were in Rebecca's infirmary waiting for Igor to be taken out of repairs and cover up.

"Plan A 'Beat the snot out you' wasn't working out so we had to go with Plan B." Leo explained sitting cross legged on the floor of the infirmary.

"Well that and we didn't want Tatsuya popping our ear drums again." Masaki explained pulling a set of ear plugs out. "We can still hear, just not anything that's gonna hurt us again."

"Speaking of which does anyone know how that trigger happy android is doing?" Tatsuya asked pacing impatiently.

George, clearly surprised to hear this relevant and shocking bit of news that he was not aware of, turned his head to face Masaki and mouthed the word 'Android' to which Masaki mouthed back that he would explain later. After a while Rebecca came back out, latex gloves freshly stretched over her hands in a manner similar to a surgeon.

"He'll pass for human, and he's got his psion fuel topped off for a while, now all we have to do is move him." Rebecca stated thumbing in the direction behind her.

"Excellent!" The group shot a scowl down the hall as Makoto walked up to them through the front doors of the clinic. "Then we will be taking young Ivan into custody."

"Under what grounds?" Masaki barked leveling a murderous glare with the sixty year old man.

"Perhaps you didn't notice the giant chunk of C4 with combined mass of of several fully loaded mini vans?" Makoto commented pointing upwards into the air.

"Although since Tuman Mine and Tuman bomber aren't classified as strategic class magic, yet and believe me we are working on rectifying that, there is still a bare minimum of safety that any such spell must fall under."

"That's a ballsy thing to say about someone who has been blatantly ignoring the strategic class magic ripoffs that have been piling up around these parts." Masaki commented glowering angrily at the senor citizen.

"Sorry Mister Kudou." Kudou jumped at the sound of the voice behind him, Rebecca's burly assistant having sneaked up on him. "But I need to speak with Igor immediately." The Russian accented man handed Makoto a letter. "Igor's father Vladimir wants him back home, a cousin just died that Igor was quite close to and he wants him to give the obituary. Perhaps you heard of her? Isabelle her name was?" Kudou took the letter but did not read it, stared at Ivan straight in the eye as the Russian man walked right by him towards Klaud. "Comrade!"

"Ivan!" The burly Russian picked Klaud up in a bear hug and let her down after a few moments. "Oh I'm so happy to see you again!" Klaud stated beaming at the burly man.

"This we agree. But alas my time here is short, I am merely picking something up." Ivan stated sorrow tinting his accent. "You should come to Russia sometime. You, I and Igor can shoot skeet and eat some proper borscht some time eh?"

"Sounds like a great idea." Klaud stated laughing. Ivan went off into the medical tent, leaving behind Makoto who looked complete and utterly terrified. Klaud ended up leading the group out of the infirmary.

"Do I even want to know what all of that was about?" Masaki asked looking nervous.

"That was my cousin Ivan. Vladimir is the name of a Russian Gangster Ivan works for, he was probably the one that supplied the bit of the Russian magician they used to make Igor." Klaud explained nonchalant.

"Isabelle was the name of a informant for the Japanese military." Rebecca continued hurrying the group away from the infirmary. "Vlad had his girlfriend rip her guts out and use them for stockings."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Not quite yet, she has a fair amount of physical rehab to go through first.

Duked: Well, there's a significant less of a need to hold back when your opponent can shrug off being hit by a train.


	61. Chapter 61

**Author's Note** : An important announcement, It has come to my attention that this story is not as popular as it use to be, and I fear I am losing my motivation to write it. As such I intend to finish the story with it's current story arc. If anyone thinks I should do differently then you still have a few chapters left to convince me. In the mean time, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 61: Monolith Code 2 round 2

The second Event for Monolith code had been set up in the dull grey of the urban district, which was fine as far as Klaud was concerned. Minimal amount of greenery, wood and other flammable materials, perfect when fighting a foe that rips open holes in the Ozone layer. Nothing around for him to burn or destroy, except for them that is.

"For our second round!" The bracket's chart appeared in a TV screen set up in the bar that the group had taken as their base, showing the first round had been done and it was now time for the second. "We start things off with a match up between First High and Second high!"

From what Klaud had heard the other three fights had been uneventful, by design no less. Each fight had been rigged to put the highest number of damage between them and the finish line for these events, hence Klaud was now in the start of a fight against the guy who has the same destructive power as a fire breathing dragon, without being as big and easy a target to hit, in a place where sticking her head out mean that it would be seared off.

"Eh we've had worst." Leo stated non-chalantly.

"True, we could be back in the forest again." Klaud commented watching across the playing field, leaning against their monolith for the event. "Lots of raw fuel for a massive fire. We might not be able to stop it this time."

"Leo, no offense to you but we must ask you to stay back this time." Tatsuya stated looking seriously at his old friend.

"No please let me go out on the front lines where I can get roasted alive and have all of my skin burned off." Leo stated in a lack luster sarcastic voice. "Don't worry, tanky Leo will keep the Monolith safe and sound."

Nodding their heads to Leo's statement, Tatsuya and Klaud prepared to head out as they Heard a familiar count down.

"3. 2. 1! Go!" The Announcer declared to the world at large.

Klaud and Tatsuya stuck their upper bodies out of their speakeasy base to the sight of bubbling and boiling pavement. Their only shield to the intense heat barreling down outside was the large hatch that Tatsuya had thought to cover in carbon nanotubes before they went in, they saw the beginning of a mirage off in the distance, for some reason depicting a man riding on a unicorn.

"Well It's nice to know that they care." Tatsuya commented looking out to see the scorched earth before him.

"We should probably try to cool things down a little bit." Klaud stated as she loaded one of her cards into her C.A.D.

"If I stick my head out am I gonna regret it?" Tatsuya asked looking quite legitimately concerned.

"Indubitably." Saying that, Tatsuya retreated back into the basement while Klaud fired the Ice card into the air. They were treated to a blast of polar air as the power of Ozone circle was over powered by the sheer icy freezing power of the Ice Card. The colliding cold and warm fronts mixed together, creating a tornado. Klaud shot the windy in next, giving extra power to the tornado and placing it under her control in the process. "Now lets go hunting. Tats you read me?" Klaud asked her finger on the phone in her ear.

* * *

"Never call me Tats again." Instead of traveling on the surface like what Klaud was doing with her tornado blizzard, Tatsuya was in the sewers, not having been used in years didn't make them smell any better but it beat being cooked or frozen to death on the surface. "Making my way to the enemy base, will signal you when I get there." Team second High from the their office building base could on stare on in shock as in open defiance to the giant hole in the Ozone layer they ripped open a snowy blizzard was moving towards them.

"Ah David." Upon being called the android that was responsible for creating the scorching wasteland that the blizzard barring down on them was thriving in turned to face his teammates. "We might want to do something about... that."

"Agreed. The building is too sturdy for them to knock it down, but they can break windows, we need to get barriers set up."

"On it." At once a burly looking individual stepped forward and held his hands out putting my the Jumonji Clan's infamous Phalanx into play. "That should hold them."

* * *

In the mean time the third member of the group went over to the elevator and used the cable to slide down. Tatsuya found a weakened wall that led into the basement and he used it, a pipe turned into pick ax as he forced the wall open, unlike his super soldier foes he at least respected the rule about not using strategic class magics instead of using a loop hole to get around it. Tatsuya looked above him to see one of the second high fighters, flames lit from his hands as he looked down at Tatsuya because of course they paired a pyromancer with a guy that can set an entire city on fire. Tatsuya saw the enemy magic circle, uploaded a new command into the spare space in his silver horn and wrist C.A.D., and fired the contradictory magic formula's extinguishing the flames. Not able to process what was going on, Tatsuya shot out the stair case dropping his foe several feet and breaking both of his legs with a hardy thud when he hit the ground. Tatsuya on the other hand used anchoring magic to scale the wall and arrived at the bottom of the broken stair case before running up. The wounded student of Second High looked up and grabbed his ear phone.

"Boss. He's coming for you."

At once the remaining two second high students destroyed the mass of furniture that had been piled against one of the windows releasing the only thing holding back the wall of fire outside into the stair case, cutting Tatsuya off. In the mean time though Klaud was outside, covering the building in ice even as David attempted to burn it off. The Blizzard hurricane was directly on top of them now and it threatened to rip the building apart. The building sagged and groaned under the pressure, the shot card smashed through a wall and knocked out Second High's Jumonji clansmen taking his shields with him, through the newly opened holes in the building Klaud walked inside.

"Greeting's Second High. I am Klaud Reed." David fired bursts of Psions at Klaud, the use of the shield card shrugging off his crude attack. "You may call me Klaud." Klaud briefly looked around the room, please to see David and her were alone in their consciousness. "So android." Klaud stated turning her attention to face the individual she came here to confront. "I have a offer. Come with me, and I will do to you what I did for Igor. A safe way out of the country, far away from the Kudou clan and their mad little super soldier project. Either that, or face destruction at the hands of those who created you for being a failed creation."

"You can do that?" asked David cocking his eyes suspiciously at Klaud.

"I would say go asked Igor but he's on a plane back to mother Russia as we speak." Klaud stated in a amused tone of voice.

"Okay." David said reassuringly.

Shortly after that the horn rang signaling the end of the match, Tatsuya, having been cut off from the enemy, seems to have went behind their backs and activated the enemy monolith while no one was looking. David took a little while to close the hole he ripped open in the Ozone, bought Angie the time she needed to get him away, the losing teams from the other Monolith code matches were no where to be found, Makoto's doing no doubt.

"Three Androids missing in action." Tatsuya stated pinning pictures to a wall in First High's preparation room. "The thugs working for Klaud's father are here. They will make sure that nothing happens to the contenders in the other match."

"Are we really just going to trust the No Head Dragons on this one? I mean, after they tried to kill us all last year." Erika quickly pointed out, baton ready as she prepared to go out and join the security escorts.

"I can assure you these dragons do have a head, it belongs to my father." Klaud stated peering into Erika's soul. "They will behave, unless Makoto tries anything funny, then it will be he missing his head."

"Good to know." Erika commented putting her Baton away nervously. "In any case if we're not needed then me and Leo are going to make sure that the losing team from the other match don't 'disappear' either."

"Go, in the mean time go and see about a few missing teams shall we?" Tatsuya asked, Silver horn loaded with a black device and a tungsten silencer.

* * *

Retsu sat in his apartment, dinner freshly prepared as he began the process of eating his lasagna, noticing a open window he appeared to pay it a moments thought before returning to his meal.

"I had a seat prepared for you, another tray as well though I don't know if you'd indulge." Retsu stated watching as Klaud circled around him and plopped into the chair in front of him.

"Not hungry." Klaud stated looking down and around the table. "Show me." Klaud ordered and Retsu obliged, sticking out his leg and pulling up his pant leg to reveal the wood underneath.

"A concept you're familiar with I presume. Your uncle would probably have needed similar prosthetics." Retsu commented calmly eating his food.

"Never met him, he, and what you did to him, was way before my time." Klaud stated glaring at Retsu. " _He didn't_ want _to live after what you did to him!_ "

"My apologies. Your mother and sisters eskew my ability to judge age." Retsu explained as he continued to eat his supper.

"Should I assume that you are here to address the dissatisfaction you feel on your uncle's behalf? Or is there another reason you are here?" Retsu asked cocking a suspicious brow at Klaud.

"People have gone missing." Klaud stated narrowing a glare at Retsu.

"People? Or androids?" Retsu asked looking at Klaud with interest.

"There's a difference?" Klaud asked in a tone which implied she had already decided the answer.

"I like you." Retsu brought up a tablet and let Klaud look through it. "It wasn't too long ago that people were saying differently about magicians."

"Don't like me too much yet, I still haven't decided if I'm leaving here with or without your head." Klaud explained looking through the tablet. "What is this about?"

"That would be the facility where our mutual friends were originally born." Retsu stated casually inserting a food tipped fork into his mouth. "It's also where they've been brought. If you wish to go after them yourself you'd have to leave the competing grounds first."

"You don't seem to recall who my sisters are. What about the ones who aren't androids?" Klaud asked as she forwarded the information to Rebecca.

"A mild sedative was put into their food as they were dining with their android teammates. Afterwards they were moved to their rooms where they will wake up confused but very safe." Retsu explained sincerity in his voice.

"You've helped so I'll help you." Klaud said as she made her way to the window. "Put Makoto somewhere he will never hurt anyone ever again, or my family will after we're done shutting down your little factory." Leaving that warning behind, Klaud jumped out the window.

* * *

In the mean time Makoto was standing inside of a warehouse, crates upon crates of cargo were inside, in each one, hanging from racks like so many suits, were androids that had been deactivated and left in this state of storage.

"Get these things ready to shipped out." Makoto stated as he closed one of the containers. "I want to be in Hong Kong by morning!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: Yah I know.


	62. Chapter 62

**Author's Note** : Not much to say, Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 62: Monolith Code 2 Round 3

The third and final round of the Monolith code event, taking place inside of the desert area, Klaud examined the sand and tasted some of it, noting the salty taste. That was of course to be expected given their opponents were team Sixth high, and more specifically than that as the media had dubbed one Penny Teller, God Wrath, someone with the literal capacity to call lightning down from the sky like the proverbial wrath of god. Lightning was a notoriously inaccurate form of magic. Even with a direct line of sight without fine controls of someone like Tatsuya or the Thunder card it would quickly veer off from it's target, but with the conductive properties of the sand, they didn't need a direct hit, they just needed to get close. If they took off into the air to get away from the sand then they raise the likely hood that the enemy's 'Thunder Mine' could hit them.

"The terrain and our enemy has some pretty high compatibility." Klaud stated getting up from her crouching position.

"What about you and the terrain?" Leo asked looking over from scanning the horizon with his binoculars. To this question, Klaud donned a evil smile that filled Leo with both relief and dread. "Forget I asked."

"You literally have a card for every occasion don't you?" Tatsuya asked looking at Klaud eye cocked.

"Two for this one." Klaud stated loading her C.A.D.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The group clammed up upon hearing the obnoxious voice of the announcer for the events. "It has been a long hectic road up till now!"

"Filled with lightning, explosions, tsunami's, fire." Klaud commented in a bored tone of voice.

"But here we are, in the final round for Monolith code!" While the Announcer went on Rambling Klaud went to work pin pointing their enemy, unlike Igor who relied on point and shoot and David who did area of effect this one dealt in both fields. Figuring where she was and corking her was their best chance to put a end to this nonsense about super soldier magician androids. "3. 2. 1! Go!"

At once Klaud fired her loaded card into the sand below them. Then the ground started to shake.

"I HATE THIS PART!" Leo shouted holding onto Tatsuya for dear life.

Suddenly a huge sand storm had been kicked up in the area, the sand card being activated.

"Sand! There's another group of people running around here! Go get em!" As quick as it began the sand storm stopped, something from underneath the sand quickly began digging it's way through making it's way to the other side. In response to the incoming sand spirit, Penny started calling down lightning from the sky shooting the rolling mass of sand with bolts of lightning, successfully hitting it the correct angle instantly turn it into glass. The Sand Card's response to this was to pull together six more lumps of sand and continue the chase.

"That is impressive!" Leo commented looking through his binoculars in the direction of the sand card, watching as it continued to assemble chunks of sand in what he quickly realized was the direction of the enemy group. "You're gonna be hard pressed to top that." Klaud smiled deviously as she loaded another card and took aim off in the distance. "Me and my big mouth."

Klaud took aim at the giant chunk of crystal sand that Penny had made earlier and fired a pink bolt of magic at it. Klaud wasn't intent on summoning the Thunder card again, that much electricity around this much conductive material? They'd all be fried in a instant. Instead for her defensive option she saw a opportunity and decided to ruthlessly exploit it. Namely using the float card to lift the huge chunk of high conductive glass into the air and have it tank the lightning storm that Penny was generating.

"There Now we can really go on the offensive. Tatsuya, if you would be so kind." Klaud stated handing Tatsuya a card.

"With pleasure."

Tatsuya grabbed hold of the card and sunk psions into it, causing the card to take the form of a blue carbunkle, which then entered Tatsuya's body flooding his lower extremities with power. Tatsuya took off at super human speeds through the desert terrain while taking out both of his Silver Horns, that glass ball Klaud had grabbed was doing a pretty good of grounding the electricity and thus he could safely run around it so long as he avoided where the sand had turned to glass and was still electrified. Unfortunately the massive cloud of dust that he was kicking up in the process caught the attention of the team from Sixth high.

"In coming. Really fast incoming." One of the members of Sixth High jumped down, activating twin wrist C.A.D.s as he sunk anchoring magic into the sand, and soon pulled out a huge club made of the stuff. The club in question was soon disintegrated when it was met by Tatsuya's gram demolition attack and the student soon realized he would be next. "I hate that school."

Tatsuya nailed the poor guy with a trio of modulating psion waves that soon rendered him on the ground emptying his stomach. Penny started up a second grid of Thunderclap Mine, raising her hand up above and ordering the lightning down on their position. Tatsuya quickly bolted away in response.

"Klaud it's Tatsuya, they've got a second Thunderclap Mine active over their heads, I can't get close." Tatsuya stated running as the lightning tried to strike him. He eventually found what he believed to be the farthest perimeter where the lightning could get at him, and taking advantage quickly ran around just inside of the perimeter, the lightning acting perfectly to create a perimeter of glass around the effective area. "That should give us a idea of what we're dealing with."

* * *

Klaud had recalled the Sand card, by now it was blatantly obvious that it wouldn't do them any good based on Tatsuya's report. Rather Klaud had sent Thunder to take the Mirror card up above the location Tatsuya reported and without fail found the circle of glass and the team from Sixth High in the middle of it.

"So here's where they are. Now we just need a idea of what we wanna do with them." Klaud asked scratching her chin.

"Hey did you just say that you sent your Thunder Card thingie up there?" Leo stated the beginnings of a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, it blended in perfectly with all the..." Klaud trailed off as she put two and two together. "Man I feel stupid some times. Go get em."

Klaud fired the Thunder Card into the heart of the nearest Thunderclap Mine Field, directly into the giant floating ball of glass that was tanking the effects of the continuously firing lightning. Soon the glass shattered, revealing the form of a giant tiger made of lightning, floating in the air, letting out a booming roar of crackling energy, eyes narrowing hatefully and without a hint of gratitude at the source of the storm to which had empowered it so. A monster on a mission.

* * *

"Not again!"

Ever since Steeple chase Penny had been having nightmares about her own lightning coming alive and attacking her, and for good reason, since her lightning had came alive and attacked her, and better reason, her lightning was coming alive and trying to kill her again. Fortunately she had been paired with competent teammates who were able to use the environment to their advantage as much as she was, creating barriers of sand that turned to glass and grounded the lightning monster to where it would not be able to get to them through the ground that was insulated. Everything else came alive with energy and soon the desert was replaced by smoldering glass.

"Glad we got Shino out." Penny could only nod in agreement.

The frustrated lightning spirit retreated once it determined that it wouldn't be breaching the enemy beach head, returning to Klaud in card form.

"Well that plan failed." Klaud stated as she rested her chin on her fist.

She understood why this one was saved for last, it had lasted longer than most others when faced with the power of her cards. If Rebecca was here she'd call it fascinating. If Maylin was here she'd note that the enemy consisted of a high level offense type with two high level defense types on support in a area that was strategically viable for their position. As for Klaud though.

"We need to insulate ourselves if we wanna walk into that hell again. What do you think Tats?" Leo snickered as Tatsuya zoomed into play.

"I don't suppose you have a rubber card in there?" Tatsuya asked handing Klaud back her card.

"Not really no." Klaud stated taking the card back from Tatsuya. "I deal in what exists naturally. I occasionally pull a ton of it out of thin air, but I don't have anything that didn't exist in the nineteenth century."

"Then air is our best insulator." Tatsuya stated prompting Leo to snort.

"No offence buddy but air didn't do a lot to stop that lightning earlier." Leo pointed out to a huge section of desert that had been turned into a glassy art project by Penny's Thunder Clap Minefield, they themselves spared only thanks to the makeshift faraday cage Klaud had built using the Sand card.

"In order to conduct electricity requires mass, the less mass between you and the electricity, the lower your chances of getting shocked. Air? Maybe. Thin air? Most likely. A vaccum? Highly preferable." Tatsuya explained counting points off of his finger tips.

"Well we need air too, so any more bright ideas anyone?" To Leo's question, Klaud looked down at the sand and then at her C.A.D as a idea formed in her head.

* * *

"This is either the craziest or most brilliant thing we've ever done." Leo stated, putting a make shift fishbowl created by Klaud on his head, a Glass container on the side containing liquid oxygen.

"I find that the two often go hand in hand. Now come on." Klaud stated, head also in fish bowl, sitting in front of Tatsuya, head equally fish bowled, as they rode on Klaud's staff with wings like a broomstick, Leo getting on behind them. "We've only got a few minuets before we have to admit that they stumped us."

Simply put they were riding on Klaud's staff that had both the flight and speed cards loaded. Their fish bowls were made using a combination of the sand card and thunder with a little padding from Klaud's jeans. The liquid oxygen and giant vaccuum they were flying in were both products of the Windy card. They began flying through the vacuum to their enemy, they tried to hit them with lightning again and was met by the wall of solid nothingness that Klaud had created leaving it neutralized, they hurled balls of sand and glass at them and they were met by Tatsuya's Gram demolition attack, blowing them into harmless smithereens.

"I hate that school." Was the last thing that Penny said before Leo's C.A.D. knocked the last of them out.

"First High Wins! First High takes it all!"

While the vultures circled through the field trying to be the first to claim the returning champions for themselves Klaud and her group were already making their escape. As quickly as the entered they left, grabbing Penny and flying away on their combination of Cards, Klaud creating a distraction using a combination of the illusion and voice cards for the hungry reporters and camera men. They arrived at a truck on the outskirts of the play area. Waiting for them was Angie, now granted they hadn't gotten Penny's permission to ship her across sea's yet, but then again assuming that Angie did her part right she'd only be sent to the Stars safe house in the city.

"Are you guys going to be alright with her?" Klaud asked using her phone to make sure that her and her team's duplicates were doing a adequate job of keeping those goons busy.

"She's practically part of the family already." Alexander stated from the front seat of the truck. "We ain't gonna let anything happen to her."

"Good we'll meet you there. We're gonna go pick up the others first." Klaud stated, though a muted Tatsuya stepped in to give Angie a disk.

At first she was going to ask what it was for, though the title on it reading 'Android Upgrade' gave her a pretty good idea what it was for. After that the group got back to the hotel and Klaud recalled her Cards as they met up with the others. Makoto was no where to be found during the final death throws of his project and Maylin couldn't find the missing android students, neither of which was coincidence they suspected. The time for games had officially ended. Now they went to war.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Hornofdesolation: It's not just about popularity, it's about personal satisfaction. When someone works hard on something, they want to hear that they did well on something too. This, this isn't something that I'm getting on this very well. So I've made the decision to stop working on this and try something else for a while. Understand that I will finish this story to a degree I feel satisfied, until then I look forward to your lack luster reviews.


	63. Chapter 63

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say right now, if all goes according to plan just two more chapters left. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 63: Magical Warfare: Beginning

The facility was darkened, one of several docks and or warehouses that had gone dark after the massive reduction in the Earth's population in the 22nd century. A guard neglected his duties in favor of watching the broadcast from the Nine School's Competition. First high won again, surprise surprise, and all of the android super soldiers that Makoto was hoping to have prove the superiority over the rest of the world failed. That did not make him happy. It seemed that he was planning to press the offensive anyway, the way shipping containers were being packed up and shipped out. While he was thinking this the guard was whacked in the back of his head, unceremoniously dropping down to the floor with a thud.

" _Guard neutralize. Though the news probably did that anyway. Thank goodness for stupid henchmen._ "

The shadowy figure responsible pressed their finger to their lips silencing their companions before directing them to one of the shipping containers, already unlocked and half open, inside were roughly humanoid figures, hanging off of something that resembled clothes racks like suits. They only hesitated to call them bodies because she knew what they were made of. What was more disturbing then the figures hanging from hooks like so many slaughtered cows were the number of crates, the number that had locks on them indicating something inside as oppose to the ones that didn't, the amount of space in here that was marked by empty outlines indicating containers that had come and gone. To the dismay of the infiltration team most of the room was empty. Erika pulled her mask off and turned the TV off as her body double was in the process of getting a medal put around her neck, the illusion card if her memory served, or maybe one of the others she wasn't sure. Erika whipped out a phone as her father, his men, various government officials, and a select number of her classmates dragged the men who were inside of the ware house away. That didn't matter any right now, the ships filled with the contents of the warehouse were gone, and that was a serious problem.

"Boss lady, we have a situation here." Erika stated into her communicator.

Klaud was inside of a darkened room, monitors and men laid out in front of her displaying the group's ongoing operations. Radar screens scanning the oceans in search of the missing cargo ships. Camera's on Erika's and her team's person as they swept through the enemy storage facilities and laboratories in search of relevant information. Rebecca's lab, where she had just finished extracting information from one of the enemy scientists.

"There's roughly six hundred androids on the ship, I see specifications for 'Houdini, Lee, Henning, Vernon, Brown, Kio, Angel, Teller, Blaine and Copperfield' models." Rebecca explained accessing the files using the information that she just took from the scientist.

"I see." Klaud wasn't there alone, she was joined by the sight of Retsu Kudou. She wasn't happy about old man sitting duty, but it was better then nothing until they could find that ship.

"Makoto explained each of the models he had created to me in great detail." Retsu stated folding his hands together. "Angel wasn't among them."

"So, something more dangerous then creating tidal waves, burning holes into the atmosphere, and calling down lightning storms." Klaud asked thinking for a few moments on what could possibly be more dangerous given everything that she has already managed to shrug off. "Tatsuya." Klaud stated in a tone filled with realization.

"So there are things that you fear." Kudou stated his head only turned slightly to face Klaud.

"Most of what Tatsuya is capable of I can counter or recreate with my cards. If I did have to fight him, the one thing I could count on is that he's not suicidal enough to use that nuke spell of his at point blank range." Klaud stated folding her hands together, well aware of the fact that the same did not necessarily apply to the androids.

In fact such instincts as well as memory, emotion, mercy have in all likely hood been stripped of the androids from that warehouse in favor of additional calculation space. Such things might have been necessary in the ones they used to infiltrate the Nine School's competition, but not now. Not when such things would only serve as another barrier between them and whatever Makoto hoped to accomplish by doing this.

"Don't make any sense though. They had time to pack up the warehouses. Why else would they leave their...?" As Klaud asked that question, she came to a inkling of a answer and attacked the console with the desperateness of a bear with it's foot stuck in a trap. "Erika it's a trap! Get out of there now!"

* * *

Inside of the warehouse, the half full shipping containers began to stir, their contents waking up and unhooking themselves from their restraints. The androids, opened the containers up fully and was greeted by a mixture of magical projectiles and bullets by the startled people who had just realized that they were there. Most of the shots did little good. The Androids were armed with C.A.D. rifles and guns, as if they needed them when their powerful muscle tissues afforded them extra space inside of their bodies for extra C.A.D.s, as just by being made the way they were didn't make them terrifyingly powerful enough, they had to mount guns on top of the guns. Guns that they put to work, several of them aimed at the men inside of the warehouse and fired, their comrades stopped firing out of sheer horror when they saw their co-workers turned to gas. Then they ran, some of them made out of the building.

"Uh Tatsuya! We got a few out here that look like you!" Erika stated into her communicator, even as she ran out and snatched men to bring them aboard the van she was hiding inside. When the Androids exited from the building, Erika could see most of the forces left lining up their guns to buy time. "Sorry guys." Erika slapped the Speed card down on the floor of the van, giving it a much needed speed boost as she and a most of her classmates hi tailed it out of that place as quickly and efficiently as they possibly could. At the same time Erika saw a familiar black bolt zoom by above her. "It's all up to you Tatsuya." Erika stated looking up as Tatsuya prepared to rain hell.

The Man was good at Multitasking, if nothing else could be said. As quickly as the police and military were dismantled on a molecular level, Tatsuya put them back together with regrowth. When the androids clued in to refocus their efforts the men on the ground fled as fast as they could. Tatsuya in the mean time made use of his own Modern Magic version of the speed card to dodge the incoming volley's of enemy fire. Hopefully he could simply keep dodging them until such a time that they ran out of power. Those hopes were dashed when Tatsuya looked up to the air to see the familiar lighting of Thunder Clap Mine, letting loose it's volley's to strike him down. Tatsuya went to ground level as the police and military retreated, he was safe from the lightning, but not from the mechanical monstrosity's intent on vaporizing him. The C.A.D.s around Tatsuya's wrists spat out magical formula Tatsuya made use of active magic jamming to shut down his clones. That did little to deter the ones behind them from raising up their hands and opening the sky up, letting the fire in from outside of the atmosphere and making the oceans boil and the tar on the ground bubble. Tatsuya burned under his armor, made out of high heat resistant material yes, but he still burned, his feet sinking into the melted ground did not help either. The lightning still came, cutting off his attempts at a exit, while his opponents continued inward unaffected by the heat.

" _So they made fireproof soldiers, and then they gave them fire as a weapon. Smart._ " The enemy appeared to start growing in numbers as they surrounded Tatsuya.

"Leave, him alone!"

Tatsuya welcomed the blast of cold air that struck at his back, a sharp relief compared to the burning fires used by the enemy to try and melt him into submission. A familiar tornado had emerged from the colliding hot and cold fronts pulling away the enemy, Tatsuya found himself in the heart of the storm as it were. Instinctively he used Regrowth healing both him and his half melted armor like new. The enemy mechs had flight C.A.D.s too, they probably had regrowth too if they needed to use it. And now they were free to strike at his allies. Activating his own suits flight systems Tatsuya gave chase, the polar opposites of extreme cold and hot should have weakened either them or their armor, and failing that, this should do them in anyway. Thus Tatsuya whipped out tungsten tipped guns, formed a tube of magic formula, broke the add-ons into smoke, and fired. The massive cloud of super heavy particles swept away one of the enemy androids that had been concerned with ground forces leaving it's lower body behind. Another moved to revive it's fallen comrade while the others refocused their attention on Tatsuya, the cold giving the super conductors in their brains a boost as they opened fire. Tatsuya was still casting active magic jamming, neutralizing decomposition with one Silver horn and wiping androids away with the other. A pointless endeavor that did little other than create a stalemate. The Androids were unable to hit Tatsuya in a manner that did lasting damage to him, Tatsuya was unable to cast jam regrowth, decomposition and shoot at the same time.

" _Is this what the Chinese felt in Okinawa fighting me?_ "

While Tatsuya thought about that help did eventually arrive when someone on the ground started using a similar cloud of super heavy gas to Tatsuya's to take shots at the enemy androids, Tatsuya took advantage of the back up to cast jam Regrowth, then bits of Androids started to drop like flies. Tatsuya landed on the ground, greeted by the sight of Miyuki and Angie looking very smug with themselves.

"I take it the tornado was your doing?" Tatsuya asked looking at his sister brow cocked.

"With some help." Miyuki chuckled holding up the Windy card in her hand. "What do we know about the ship?"

"Long gone, probably headed for someone willing to take in a lunatic like Makoto in exchange for his pet monsters." Tatsuya stated his hand scratching at his chin.

"Or the bloody lunatic went on the warpath." Angie stated holding up the severed head of one of the androids, plugged into a computer Rebecca is no doubt responsible for. "All these guys have pictures of you, Klaud, a bunch of your classmates with instructions to kill you and everyone in their path."

"Terrific." Tatsuya stated holstering his weapons of choice as he looked out to the ocean with trepidation. "Did Pixie finish her upgrade?"

"We even brought her with us." True to Angie's statement, the android dressed as a maid stepped out of Angie's truck and looked down at the remains of her fellows, something akin to horror on her features that were not meant to twist in that manner.

"My apologies. I suppose you feel much the same way witnessing their remains as we would were they humans." Tatsuya stated, looking to the ground and imagining a bloodied stump where broken bits of machinery laid.

"It's... unsettling." Pixie stated looking uncomfortable.

"If you'd like to have this conversation somewhere else, be my guess." Pixie immediately moved to the other side of the truck and Tatsuya followed. "I assume you finished your upgrade?"

"Yes. Installation of advanced telemetry has made it possible for me to pin point the locations of all of my fellow Psion parasites in the the world." Pixie explained some of the brightness back in her features. "I am able to locate where the current shipment of android troopers is heading."

"Do it." Tatsuya stated in a commanding tone of voice.

The top of Pixie's head folded out to reveal a satellite dish.

"Locating, longitude... uh oh." Pixie stated a look of clear worry on her features.

"'Uh oh'?" Tatsuya repeated, interest and worry both plain as day on his otherwise neutral features.

"Master. They're on a direct line for Hong Kong. I don't think they have peaceful intentions." Uh oh indeed.


	64. Chapter 64

**Author's Note** : One more Chapter left until we reach the end. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 64: Magical Warfare: Mid point

Klaud, Inari and Sapphire were flying over the swath of Ocean that existed in between Japan and South Korea, the exclusion zone between Japan and China, where most of the fighting in what is largely a cold war took place. A cold war that was about to break, if one mad man had his way. He wouldn't, not if Klaud had her way. Which wasn't going to be easy. Looking down Klaud saw a huge number of ships, looking through her telescope she could see the same name and serial numbers on most of them.

"Parade. Or a jacked up version of Parade. Let's sink some ships guys."

""Yes sir!""

Klaud on Inari's back flew down low and Klaud shot a card into the water. Said water spontaneously took the form of a tidal wave and carried the ships, a great deal of which suddenly disappeared from having the magic supporting their illusory existence sharply cut off and those that remain were drifting out to sea.

"Tatsuya, just knocked a bunch of sailors out on some ships, can you get Pixie and Stars to sweep it for bugs?" Klaud asked finger in her earphone communicator.

"Acknowledged. In the mean time you might wanna look up." To Tatsuya's warning's Klaud saw that the lightning was already coming down from above.

"Got cha, will resume radio contact once I'm some where a little less conductive." Acknowledging this point, Klaud placed a mask connected to a bottle of liquid oxygen on her face. She loaded a second card and fired it at the lightning, the windy sucked all the air out of the immediate vicinity and broke the lightning on the resulting vacuum.

"Ha! Is that the best you've got!" Klaud shouted waving her staff around threateningly. It was at that moment that the sky opened up to reveal a huge beam of bright burning light scorching the land and making the oceans boil. "Oh I forgot about that."

"Fly?" Inari asked, he was enjoying direct exposure to his source of power the sun, but Klaud would probably be a different matter altogether.

"Fly faster." Klaud stated putting the familiar blue glow of the speed card into her flying mount, when it wasn't holes in the ozone being ripped open it was bolts of lightning coming down from the sky. "Well at least they're keeping it interesting. Hope this means the others are doing better."

* * *

Indeed with the focus being on Klaud in the air Tatsuya's team, joined by Pixie and Stars, were able to get on the land without much issue, Mio Itsuwa taking the liberty of kissing the Watery card once she was on dry land.

"Alright fella's suits off, armor on." Mio stated to the various assembled magician soldiers. At once a crate was dragged onto the shore and from it opened the heat resistant armors which made walking under territory plagued by Ozone Holes much safer, hence the group's haste to get them on. "Try to stay under the area's being plagued by lightning, that little card dealer up there will be enough to keep it off our backs." As Mio said that Tatsuya sneaked up behind her and took the Watery card away from her.

"Your usefulness here has expired, and will not resume until the end of this operation is over and we are on our way back home. Therefore you will stay put until we return, and in doing so you will secure our escape route." As Tatsuya said that he took off into the air, soon followed by the rest of the unit. Mio was going to follow them, until she discovered she was deprived of a flying C.A.D. by which to join them.

"Jerk." Muttering that Mio returned to the water, intending to go as deep as she could to diffuse the the effects of the holes in the Ozone layer.

* * *

"Hey Tat's how long am I gonna have to be a target for this thing?" Klaud asked into her communicator.

"Don't call me..." The sound of air sucking in on the other side was shortly thereafter followed by a low whistle. "Closing distance on safe house. Will inform you once we have reached and pin pointed location of the Parasites." Klaud soon spotted a familiar white ball that was floating in midair. A Familiar white ball that quickly exploded.

"Point if interest I think I'm getting closer. Just ran into one of the Tuman mines." Klaud dodged lightning even as she used binoculars to scan the horizon in search of the ones she was looking for. "Speaking of if we don't go on the offensive soon they'll start getting suspicious. I believe the limit to the time I can by you by assessing what manner of hell my enemies have in store for me is coming." Which wasn't a lie, Klaud had already given them enough time to bust out their usual armaments, it was the 'Angels' the ones that were based on Tatsuya that truly worried her. "Understood. Do what you have to, over and out."

Hearing the click, Klaud smiled.

"Let's go, divide and conquer!" Klaud shouted prompting her two companions to nod their heads in agreement.

Klaud hopped off of Inari's back in favor of sprouting wings from her own. Inari flew into the nearest Ozone hole he could find and started to glow with radiating power, as a creature who drew strength from the sun, opening holes in the Ozone layer was perhaps the worst move their enemies could make. And he was not the only one, for in the same way that the light of the moon is merely reflected off of the sun, the power of Sapphire who embodies the moon rises and falls with the embodiment of the sun, Inari. And raised their powers did. Sapphire produced the largest crystal she could, and Inari charged with raw energy, a massive ball that glowed like a miniature version of what he represented, large enough to eclipse him. Then he fired. The ball of light and mass of crystal met in one glorious display of showman ship, cutting the energy beam to pieces and scattering it all around in a blinding indiscriminate attack that went for a considerable distance.

" _And yet their attacks do not falter._ "

"Inari, increase the range!" At Klaud's instructions, the light intensified, Klaud would be receiving quite the tan, or sun burn, right now if not for the full body armor provided by Madison. "Again." Now Klaud visibly felt the heat through the suit, relying on the built in censors created by Madison to monitor the enemy magics, which she noticed appeared to be disappearing, so either a suit malfunction or... "Cease fire!" The bombardment of Inari's light stopped and Klaud took a look around, no lightning, no more holes being torn in the Ozone Layer, wasn't sure about the grey balls of explosives though. "We have our search radius." Inari didn't randomly sink chunks of light in into the attack just now, the ground was burnt, chard black represented where they weren't, lightly singed where they should be, hot enough to stop their magic but not enough to destroy them completely. To do that... Although she and her companions brought harm to this small area this day she did not wish to see it destroyed. "We came from that way." Klaud stated pointing at the ocean. "We keep going that way until we find the butt pains that tried to blow us up." Klaud tapped her head phone again.

"Klaud is everything alright up there?" Tatsuya asked legitimate concern in his voice.

"I'm fine Tats. Everyone okay down there?" The Ancient Magician asked finger on her ear com once more, only getting a sigh of annoyance as a result. "So not even a miniature sun can thaw that cold shoulder out eh? Alrighty then, think Pixie can track down the other parasites in the mean time, because my next best idea is sending Shot loose to scout the area."

"Do it." Was Tatsuya's simple replied, and with that Klaud shot a bolt of red colored psions into the air.

* * *

It was sun down by the time Klaud got to the safe house, landing and shaking her head to the inquisitive special forces that came to greet her.

"Just this punk." Klaud stated, jar in hand with the one androids inside, both his size and magical power shrunken down to the point of being useless. "They already buggered off, leaving behind only the bare minimum to slow us down." Klaud roughly shoved the jar into one of the special forces arms before entering a shack that Tatsuya had reserved for himself. "If you got that tracker set up, do one sweep then break it down. The only thing left here is a distraction."

"I feel inclined to disagree." Tatsuya stated gesturing to a computer screen, radar showing the parasites heading north, across land, taking the long way around. "It appears that they expect us to assume that we're taking the ocean route, because it's shorter."

"Or they know you have a way to track them, and are using that to confuse us. One group stays active, splits off from the main. We say 'got em' pack up, and while we're after their distraction the rest of them all turn back on and go in for the main course." Klaud explained, complete by illustrating her point on what was a fairly accurate map of the world between Japan and China.

"Conversely they can take advantage of your paranoia to further delay us while they continue to make their way." Tatsuya stated briefly mourning the loss of the map and making plans to fashion a replacement.

"You got any ideas to know for sure?" Klaud asked acknowledging Tatsuya's point.

"Cover our bases." Tatsuya stated tapping his fingers in thought.

"We've got a wet work agent, the problem is that they've got a few hundred clones of her." So not helpful. Not at all. "We've got you, but that leaves me alone against a couple hundred me's." Again not helpful. "What we need, is something that they don't know about, something they wouldn't expect." At this question Tatsuya went deep in thought, thinking about their options, when something had appeared to occur to him.

"You're going to build something again aren't you?" Klaud asked a knowing look on her face.

"Maybe. How long will it take for you to stop that convoy?" To Tatsuya's question Klaud smiled, and whipped out the Earthy card. "I'll interpret that as 'fast.' I have a new experiment I want to try, for which I require a network of parasites, for which I no more intend to sacrifice Pixie then I do one of the Stars members."

"So long as we get stuff done." Klaud took to the sky again, riding on her great lion's back while she sailed through the air, gun in hand looking to rain down hell on her enemies. She briefly wondered what her mother would think of her should she see her. Raised as a pacifist, hunting down perversions of magic, saving them at the same time she condemned them.

" _I... I've spent too much time away from home. I need to go back once... all of this is done._ " Maybe she'd even visit her father in Hong Kong, he should be done terrorizing the Americans by now. Russians might be a different matter. Maybe she should just call him, a steady pillar in a sea of madness. " _Yah that would be a good idea._ "

But not right now, leading to Klaud to briefly curse the effectiveness of a fully charged Inari combined with the speed card. She spotted the train by it's dust cloud it left behind. Though she spotted something else soon enough. The side of the cars opened up to reveal roughly humanoid figures in full body armor, carrying with them familiar looking fire arms. Too familiar. One of them aimed upwards and fired, striking a single spec of dust in front of Klaud's face. Neither Klaud nor Inari felt the explosion, a nuclear blast that struck with sufficient force to destroy a city or sink a fleet. All that Makoto felt was intense feeling of satisfaction at watching the Kinomoto Family's youngest burn.

"Hold the course. We strike Hong Kong tonight!"


	65. Chapter 65

**Author's Note** : Alright, last chapter everyone, I appreciate the last minuet spurt of reviews but it doesn't change my mind about doing this anymore. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy! PS: Now that this story is done, I'm looking for ideas for a new one. Just, putting that out there!

* * *

Chapter 65: Magical Warfare: The End

Klaud came back to being inside of the trailer that served as her room inside of the camp for the duration of the trip, Inari was soon to follow her, quickly assuming his toy form in the cramped quarters.

"Man that was close." Sapphire stated breathing heavily. "You two are lucky I thought to grab some of your feathers and hair before this mess started. Even Time magic can't rebuild something from nothing." Sapphire stated coldly as she sat down on Klaud's bed.

"So in other words we really were..." Klaud hesitated to say it, confronted by here own mortality in such a manner did not bode well for her.

"Dead? Yes. Most assuredly so. You are lucky that I have power over the time card." Sapphire stated holding up what was perhaps the only masculine looking card in the entire deck. "Though to be fair, had he failed me we could have just as easily asked Tatsuya to help."

"Are the others okay? They should have been caught in the blast too." The trailer rocked slightly from something. Klaud looked out the nearest window to see that the familiar true forms of the cards were rampaging about outside.

"Everyone came back here after the explosion, and I think that they are looking for you." Sapphire intoned helpfully. "Before that you should consider putting some clothes on."

One Bath robe later and Klaud was outside of the trailer, holding her hand out to the sky and commanding all of the cards to come back to her. The young magician took in her surroundings, the smell of salt water as thick and the boat rocked. She was on a ship.

"Glad to see you're doing well Klaud." Leo stated approaching the ancient magician from behind. "After that blast everyone thought you were a goner."

"I was." Klaud stated bluntly prompting Leo slowly realize the implications. "Now I need a new battle costume sent to my trailer, a pot of coffee and a new plan." Klaud got two of those things, something that she noted sitting inside of the meeting room drinking from the coffee pot and watching the proceedings for the next meeting from while dressed in the stealth costume from Monolith code.

"Makoto's train has almost reached the Chinese Mainland." Tatsuya stated bluntly, circling the area in question with a piece of chalk. "When it reaches it's destination, Makoto's Angel type androids will be able to open fire on Chinese cities with impunity." Tatsuya stated pacing back and forth. "What we need to do, is cut them off and with our secret weapon prepared." As Tatsuya stated this, Pixie walked into the room, and waved hello to those present. "With a great deal of reluctance, we revived several of the Android troopers we took from the docks back in Japan, and were successfully able to test our virus."

"A bio weapon? Against Androids?" Leo asked raising his hand in the air.

"You idiot!" Erika slapped Leo in the back of his head with a loud smack. "He means a computer Virus! They're androids after all!"

"I mean neither." Tatsuya stated mildly miffed at being interrupted. "What I have created is a magical virus, a curse if you will. Designed to attack anything that has one of the blighted parasites attached to it, android, or human."

"So in other words, you mean to kill them." Klaud stated now catching on to Tatsuya's plans. "All of them." Klaud was visibly smiling now she approved of this plan bar for one tiny detail.

"To spread the effects of the virus, we must first have a patient zero. And we cannot utilize one of the Android's we captured, do to their time magic undoing any changes that we do manage to make to them. In other words, we need to use one of our own." Tatsuya explained grimly.

"So what you mean Pixie?" Rebecca asked cocking a suspicious brow at Tatsuya.

"Or one of the Stars members, or one of the dozen's of parasites that our aunt has taken captive in order to experiment on, provided a host can be found for them." Not that that was going to happen, all such parasites along with all of said experiments were still in Japan under the strict care and tutelage of the aforementioned aunt.

"So back to square one then." Klaud muttered crossing her arms.

"At this point in time I would like to point out that thanks to Regrowth it is possible to revert the cursed individual in question back to a state before the curse had taken hold of them, in theory. Failing that, as the designer of the curse in question, it would be equally possible to simply revert the changes made via the curse via similar means as to how the curse came to be in the first place." In other words the risk was minimal. "As that's the case, I would like to utilize the individual here that I can most easily alter without serious long term consequences, in order to minimize our risks over all." Tatsuya explained, prompting the group to once again look at Pixie.

"Hi guys!" Pixie stated giving a polite but nervous wave.

Naturally, Pixie was the most logical choice, being a highly intelligent crash test dummy that Tatsuya had created to serve as a experimental subject for new kinds of magic.

"Okay, so question, what exactly does this curse do?" Leo asked raising his hand up in the air.

"It renders a host's body incompatible with that of the parasite and forces them to leave, destroying the mind of the host in the process. Since the Androids should already have had their emotions deleted, the bond between their bodies and the parasites should be very weak, unlike Pixie's whose strong emotions has created a stronger bond." Tatsuya explained bringing up a video showing a read out made of one of the Androids brains that they tested this out on, and watched as the parasite made a right big mess of it getting out. "Pixie will be able to last a good long while under the effects of that curse. They will not."

"Great, so all we need to do is get to the train and plug this baby in. How?" Klaud asked cocking a concerned brow.

"Brute force, fight our way over?" Leo suggested raising his hand.

"We'll call that plan B. Anyone else?" Klaud asked, but no one had any suggestions, not any that allowed them to act in a time frame that grew increasingly short anyway. "Lovely. Plan B it is then. So who are we..." Everyone just stared at Klaud with a look of 'really?' "Right stupid question I know."

"The curse." Tatsuya stated holding up something that for not being a computer virus looked suspiciously like a computer desk. "You will need someone to upload it into her."

"Guess you're on tech support." Klaud stated smirking knowingly. "Sapphire, I want you to stay behind. If we get killed out there again."

"Bring yah back. Got it." Sapphire stated a little bit annoyed, but none the less went through the process of collecting hair samples from all of the relevant individuals.

"Well then." Klaud stated as Inari assumed the form of a lion. "Let's light some S.O.B's up shall we?"

Klaud, Pixie and Tatsuya got on the back of Inari as they took off into the air. Tatsuya was already working on down loading the curse into Pixie, and Klaud had her staff in gun form ready to fire off.

"Let's light em up!"

Klaud was first to fire, she started with the water, the wave card sweeping it forward and creating a massive tidal wave to strike at the land bridge that Makoto's forces were using.

"That girl doesn't know when to give up." Makoto looked at the incoming wave clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "All Angels fire!"

Already Klaud saw the explosions going off, similar to the ones that had killed her earlier on, trying to cut through the water that made up a massive shield between her and the enemy. But she had a ocean of water with which to work with, and a ocean of power with which to strike. With the shield card in place Klaud used a third card. At that time the wave card collided with the land that was to be it's target, the androids on the train successfully pushed the damage away from them with a series of nuclear explosions. But what they saw on the other side when the damage was already done, was a huge number of Klaud's group, courtesy of the illusion card.

"Keep firing until you hit them! No excuses I want them gone!"

While the Androids bombarded the incoming illusions, Klaud and her group had taken to the underwater, shielded from sight by the use of the water card, they rapidly approached the shore and soon caught the tail end of the train as it zoomed by, still continuous firing decomposition at the illusions up in the sky.

"I think it's time to stop you in your tracks!" Letting out that pun, Klaud deployed the Earthy card.

Suddenly a huge pillar appeared in the path of the tracks, the train having a head on collision, the bulk of it sent flying up into the air by it's own momentum before it came down with a crash.

"Did that stop them?" To Tatsuya's question, the rock pillar was erased in a poof of smoke, both the train and the train tracks were repaired along with it's crew and train was back on schedule like nothing had happened. "So that's a no then?"

The group wisely made use of the speed card, doing their best to stay out of sight while the androids were focused on striking down the illusions up in the air. However one thing that they didn't count on was the efficient computerized brains of the androids, each able to track which of the individual units in the sky were real or not based on whether or not they had been shot already. Therefore after having already exhausted all possible targets in the air Makoto ordered that they look for targets that were closer to the ground instead and after that it wasn't hard to spot Klaud and company flying behind them. They had choosen their position well, directly behind the train that even with the curve the train was on would prevent the androids from getting a clear shot in. That and Tatsuya's use of active cast jam on the incoming Decomposition and Material burst volleys, better known to Klaud as the nuke spell something that Klaud was eternally grateful for, also served very nicely to neutralize the incoming attacks as well.

"Got another plan Klaud?" Tatsuya asked constantly firing off his guns to take out the incoming strikes.

"How's that download coming?" Klaud asked loading another spell to strike.

"95... 96... 97..."

"I'll take that as a 'it's time to strike!'"

Klaud fired the arrow card, producing a huge volley of magic arrows able to cut through the oncoming and outgoing hoard of mismatching magics do to their simplified nature as dense clumps of psions and struck at the carriages of the train.

"100%! Ready to deploy!"

Inari grabbed onto the back of the train and allowed Pixie to jump off. The first Androids she encountered were already putting themselves back together but it was already too late. They started Screeching, Pixie only noticeably wincing under the same pain.

"They stripped everything else away, but they didn't remove your capacity to feel pain did they?" Pixie commented sadly, walking over to the android and giving it a sympathetic rub on the side of it's face. "It's alright, you can go rest now." The android stopped struggling, and Pixie left the artificial corpse behind. More androids rushed in trying to find the source of the death of one of their own and intending to use regrowth to correct the issue, instead they succumbed to the same curse that claimed the others and made them fall several at a time. As Pixie traveled through the train, more and more of the androids fell like dominoes much to the confusion of Makoto who was observing them through his console.

"What? How can this...?" Makoto heard a whistle sound coming from out side, instinctively investigating he was soon met by a shot of Decomposition directly to his face from Tatsuya, a fate more kind then what he deserved but they lacked the time or energy required for prisoners. The train ultimately came to a slow halt, Makoto was gone, the androids were dismantled, and after a long boat ride everyone was home.

* * *

A emergency meeting of the Ten Master clans was held, and the Kudou family was removed from the Ten Master's Clan. A 'polite invitation to join' was sent to the Kinomoto family's head. A equally polite response was sent in return and Tokyo had to undergo extensive repairs as a result of that Earth Quake. Instead the Shippo house holding the number 9 had been selected, with that the houses once again could be counted from 1 to 10. Klaud had disappeared off to somewhere, taking with her the rest of her family. Trying to get away from the havoc of the world at large for a while. And it was a while too, Masaki hadn't seen her since the Nine School's competition during his second year, and now he had graduated. Already he had gotten a job at some top secret research facility and now he was packing up his belongings to leave. Thinking about that while he opened the door he was greeted to a unexpected sight.

"Hey cutie, wanna go on a date?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Duked: Thank you for saying so. He did that when he started mass producing weapons of mass destruction and turned them loose at a high school sporting competition. Retsu Kudou was renown as a brilliant magician responsible for saving a country that was ravaged by war and it's own stupidity, all that Makoto will be remembered as is exactly what he had set out to become, a meat witted idiot who tried to mass produce weapons of mass destruction and use them to commit genocide.

Hornofdesolation: Thank you for saying so. Even a idiot could see that Makoto had gone too far with the Angel Type androids, is it any wonder he tried to cover up their existence? Well I'd figure they would get some use out of her, and the watery card maximizes that potential use. I thought it would work.


End file.
